Heroic vs Hatred
by A Mere Servant of God
Summary: When the most powerful heroes and villains are pulled from their worlds, a tournament begins, and a war soon after. Who will win? The Heroic? Or the Hatred? R & R to find out...
1. Episode 1:The Beginning of the Endgame

Let me just start out by saying that none of the following characters belong to me. That said, begin reading...wait for it...now!

* * *

Heroic vs. Hatred Episode 1 

The Beginning of the Endgame

(A/N: This whole first chapter is told from Mario's view.)

My name is Mario.

Everyone says I'm a hero. I say I'm just another human being, trying to do some good.

It strikes me as odd that any human could do the things the Hatred have done. Some of the things that we've done…

But then again, most of us aren't entirely human anyway.

I am, though. I am completely and totally human. Ironically enough, this made me frowned upon at first.

I am currently the leader of a group known as the Heroic. We fight against the evil Hatred, in order to end this war…

I suppose I should start my tale at the beginning…2 long years ago…

I was fighting the evil King Bowser Koopa. Koopas are humanoid-turtles, and this one is their leader, and the purest evil I've ever seen. And he looks the part, too…fangs, tail, horns, red hair, spikes on his shell…in fact, he seems more like a demon than a Koopa.

He'd gotten smarter lately. It used to be that he was thickheaded and destructive as a warhead. Now, he's just destructive. I don't know exactly when, or how it happened, but somehow, the egotistical psychopath's intellect shone through. It wasn't gradual. There was no warning. It just happened.

This plan was a lot more cunning than previous ones (a.k.a. kidnapping Princess Peach in a new way). In fact, this plan didn't even involve the gentle, pink-dressed human ruler of the toadstools.

Bowser's plan started out simple. He lured Queen Bean from the neighboring kingdom of Beanbean (I know, just go with it). He then "accidentally" let word of his plan to "kidnap" her leak out. And it fooled us all…

Turned out, he didn't want to capture the queen. He just brought her here to grab our attention while he invaded Beanbean kingdom.

By the time we got there, his monsters had been let loose, the traps to keep intruders out had been multiplied by 100 power, using the latest technology most people could only wish for. But then, Bowser wasn't most people. My twin brother, younger by a few minutes, taller and slimmer than me, blue overalls and a mustache to match mine, but a green shirt and hat to match my red, and I fought through the troops, and got through the traps in such a way I could never describe. It's almost as if we felt that this battle would be for higher stakes.

The real horror started out as soon as we got past the traps. We had fought something along the lines of an ancient stone guardian that could shoot laser beams last time we tried to get up the mountain to get this stone block, which was really round, as well as rescue the prince of Beanbean, who had been turned into a monster, and Blanblanadon, a pterodactyl who gave rides to the top normally. Well, the guardian was back, now guarding the village, and it was mutated into a magma freak by now.

By now, you're probably going, "Um…what?" And I can't say that I blame you. I can scarcely believe it myself…a whole other dimension, connected to ours by portals that randomly opened and closed…it's madness. And I love it.

But I ramble. You were wondering about the magma monster, no doubt. Well, my brother and I swiftly attacked as he shot out two beams of pure, unadulterated flame from his eyes.

Big mistake on his part.

You see, I can control all but the most powerful flames, and although I wasn't sure exactly how powerful these flames were, my brother was at my side, and that gives me some kind of weird power boost.

I halted in my tracks, and my brother leapt over the fire. I stopped the fire, sending it back to its source, while Luigi charged a ball of pure electricity…into the monster's face.

You see, while I can control fire, my brother can control electricity. (Duh…) These powers were gifts from, er, "gods". Although I _really_ doubt their god-ship…anyway, the monster was basically fried from two basic points, and it basically blew up.

"Good job, bro!"

Luigi. A brother to the end. "Thanks for the assist back there, Weeg!"

"Assist? Excuse me, but I think _you _assisted_ me_!"

Like I said, a brother to the end. Unfortunately, the end was sooner than we thought. As we found out later, Bowser had managed to turn water into its exact opposite, fire. And there was water at the top of the mountain.

Those blocks we mentioned earlier, the one used to make our hammers? Those are easily melted as well as easily broken. In other words: lava. And, of course, Bowser would have the kind of technology necessary to make a volcano erupt. So, we were in trouble.

As the mountain blew, people began to evacuate the village. You know those movies, where the hero barely manages to escape the lava flow?

Well, this was no movie. Lava flows a lot faster out here in the real world. And it's too hot to get close to, so even if you could barely escape it, you wouldn't, because of the heat. In short: it was impossible to escape.

But hey, me and Luigi had done the impossible before.

After all, how _possible _(I use that term loosely) is it to slam a large mallet on your brother's head to shrink him in size, pick him up, charge him with electricity, and toss him like a bowling ball, all without hurting him?

Yeah. That's what I thought.

But that's exactly what we did. And as I slammed into the lava, I nullified the heat, making a wall of rock, which more lava flowed over, which became more rock, until I'd basically restored the mountain, only a bit warmer than before.

Like I said, impossible.

We were pretty satisfied with ourselves, let me tell you.

Then we turned around.

Oh, crud…

* * *

Chapter One, Part two: 

The Doom Ship.

Sure, it looked like a regular ship (even though it was flying)…from far away. But up close, you could see the Dead-Black paint it was covered with, the slime-shooting cannons, the flamethrowers, and the fearsome shelled guards…

And King Bowser Koopa himself, as well.

He smirked as he slowly raised his arm, snapped his fingers. Exactly 1 second afterward, the ship opened fire.

Apparently, the volcano's eruption had been some kind of signal. A signal we were here. And when a signal for something is that big, you know what it's signaling must be extremely powerful.

And we were. But not powerful enough to stop the ginormous ship…

Yeah, right!

We jumped over, beside, through, around, and under the blasts, eventually meeting back up with each other again.

STAIRCASE BROS.!

Luigi jumped on my head, jumped off, grabbing my hands as he leapt. At the zenith of his jump, he threw me straight up. As I "flew", I grabbed his hands, and then threw him, at a slight diagonal angle. He then grabbed my hands, etc.

Either those Hammer Bros. And Shy Guys are really bad shots, or we're even better than we thought we were. Either way, we stopped on top of the ship, taking a fighting stance.

10 Shy Guys. 100 Bullet Bills. 5 Hammer Bros. 800 Goombas. 20 Magikoopas. 80 Koopas. And 1 Bowser.

-Hmm- I thought, -Less than usual.-

I jumped in front of my green-clad brother, who bashed his hammer on top of my head, then swung it like a golf club. And I was the ball. I was hit toward a Magikoopa; he shot a magic blast at me, to no avail. I hit him, knocking him unconscious, then bounced back like a pinball.

Which was exactly what we called this attack. PINBALL BROS.!

Luigi hit me over and over again, bouncing me to and fro from several enemies at a time, all of which I bounced from into another enemy or two or 7 before returning to Luigi.

Eventually, they all stopped advancing, and started advancing…to the rear.

Finally we got to Bowser. He smirked again, pulling out a stopwatch "Record time, Mario Bros. Definitely one for the history books!" he bared his claws, turning the stopwatch into a pile of gears.

"Too bad you won't be around to see those books!"

He rushed toward us with incredible speed, especially for such a large creature as himself. Me and Luigi put our backs to each other, pulling out our hammers. We started sinning around, toward Bowser.

TORNADO BROS.!

But Bowser caught my hammer, and since Luigi and I were holding hands, we immediately stopped. He sent his other hand toward us, the claws threatening to turn us into sliced ham if we didn't move fast enough.

Luigi slammed his hammer into Bowser's claw, causing him to involuntarily catch it. We stood there like that for a good 3 minutes, at a stalemate. Suddenly, Luigi turned his head toward me, I tuned mine toward his. We smirked and nodded, then jumped, Bowser still holding the hammers. Time seemed to stop for a second as we hung in space. Then me a Luigi kicked in Bowser's head, me with my right, Luigi with his left. That way, the power was focused on one spot.

Bowser was sent flying. We tried a Bros. Attack again as he slammed into the cabin wall.

TORNADO BROS.! And this time it hit.

Bowser was sitting straight up, dazed. As our hammers slammed into his gut, cracking his shell, he gagged repeatedly. Finally, we got dizzy, but he was bleeding.

However, he could take a lot more than we could, as evidenced when he stood up like nothing had happened and slashed through our midsection, turning our clothes into shreds, flowing sideways, but somehow not ripping through them.

Me and Luigi quickly regained our ground, getting ready to pull of another Bros. Attack.

Bright light. Big zap. We're gone.

* * *

Episode 1, Part 3 

Half a second after we were transported, we all got out of our fighting stance and looked around.

Bowser was first to comment. "What the heck?"

"That's just what I was thinking…" said a yellow-brown fox next to us. I'd have been freaked out if I didn't see talking animals on a daily basis.

"Okay, this is uber-freaky," said…

VIEWTIFUL JOE!

Luigi raced up to him quickly. Then he screeched like a rabid fangirl. "Oh my mushroom! It's the Viewtiful himself! Slow down time! Split the screen! Lemme touch your helmet!"

"Erm…" said good ol' Joe.

I grabbed my brother by the ear and began to drag him away. "Please excuse my brother, he's an idiot…" I then walked back to VJ, after depositing Luigi in the nearest trash receptacle. I shook the crimson clad hero's hand. "Hi. My name's Mario Mario, of the Mario Bros. You've probably never heard of us, but I've heard of you. Your last movie was great!"

"_Gran Bruce Bites Back?_ Yeah, I had fun making it!"

"Um, I hate to sound out-of-date, but what's a movie?"

I turned. Standing next to me was a man clad in Lincoln green. On his back were a quiver, a bow, a sword, and a mirrored shield. He was also wearing a belt, on which hung a small bag with some fuses sticking out, a colored drink in a bottle, and a small conductor's stick. Looking into his eyes, I could see a hard-edged warrior, but with an innocence to him.

"Robin Hood?"

The kid looked shocked. "No way! He's an amateur! I'm…" he pulled out his sword and shield, striking a pose and nearly slicing a poor pink puffball who happened to be walking by, "Link, of Hyrule!"

I looked at him for a little bit. "Okay, so you like to cosplay. But try not to use such dangerous weapons, okay, kid?"

"Cosplay! What's that?"

"Make-believe you're a fictional celebrity, and dress up like them"

"MAKE-BELIEVE? DRESS UP LIKE! **FICTIONAL!** Hyrule is the greatest of all the countries, and no myth! Who is spreading such vile rumors that it doesn't exist?"

Luigi walked over with a banana peel on his head. "Pretty much everyone on Earth…"

"What in the name of Din is happening?"

"I'll tell you what's happening. We've switched dimensions."

Everyone's attention (which had currently been focused on one another) turned to the robotic-armored girl with the laptop on her arm. "Everyone currently in this room is from another dimension than the one we're currently in."

"So we need to find a way home?" said an egg-shaped middle-aged man with sunglasses in a small mech.

"According to the data, yes…" said a purple and white cat-like thing, in a really cool thought-speak voice. It was obvious to everyone he was Psychic.

"So let's get going!" said a purple-haired belly dancer.

"Right on!" said a brown bear with a blue backpack, yellow shorts, and a shark tooth necklace.

"Woo hoo! We're going on another adventure!" said a red bird, poking out of the bear's backpack.

"Just one problem," said the movie-magic maker, a.k.a. Viewtiful Joe, "How _do_ we get home? We can't exactly just call up a portal to whisk us back to our respective dimensions, can we? Man, this is so un-cool…"

"I know how to get you all home…"

We are turned toward the stage none of us noticed before. A small octagonal section opened up, and a silhouetted figure rose on a platform, styled exactly like what had just been opened up. "Welcome, champions all!" the silhouette shouted as the platform clicked into place. "To the Inter-Dimensional Fighting Tournament! Also known as…Super Smash Bros.! You, the ultimate heroes and villains from various time periods, dimensions, planets, and tribes, have been gathered to duke it out for the ultimate prize: returning home and being granted one wish!"

The crowd murmured. Villains spoke of wishing to rule various places, while heroes spoke of…other things.

The shadowed-in announcer became un-shadowed as it said, "I'm your host…Male Wire Frame!"

You could practically see the anime-styled sweatdrop that appeared on the fighter's collective heads

"Just be warned…if you lose, then you aren't going home."

The sweatdrop turned into an exclamation point.

* * *

So, how'd you like Chapter 1, Parts 1-3? Wait, don't answer that. Tell me in a review! By the way, I don't mind constructive criticism, 

but flames will be made to hurt you.

By the way, I'm open to ANY one dare from one of the following catagories:

Teen Titans

Danny Phantom

Xiaolin Showdown

Most Nintendo Games

However; I will not do gay/lesbian stories. I mean no offense to gays and lesbians, and I do respect homosexuals, but if given the choice, I

would rather not write about them, as all of the above things I mentioned have non-gay characters. Proof? None. Probability? High. So, no

homosexual stories.

So, review and/or dare away!


	2. Episode 1: continuing

Wow! Two reviews! that's two more than my first story ,which has been deleted now. Well, technically, it had one review, but that was just a warning Teent Titans was going to be cancelled. :sobs:

Anyway:ahem: To my reviewers:

**Pyromaniac Aru of Pherae:** I was already planning to put Marth and Roy in, but note that they won't appear very often. Oh, and thanks for the compliment, I thought the fight scenes were my strong point too, but that's not saying much.

**foxdude33:** Wow. Maybe it is saying much. Favorites list...never thought I'd see the day!

Oh, and a note to everyone: I don't own any of these characters, but the plotline is copyright me. So, you steal my story, or copy its general idea, you get sued. And, since all these storylines are coming together, minor and major points and details in the games will be a bit...muddled. So, if the Heartless start being nice (which won't happen, I'm not _that_ dumb), then blame it on worlds coming together.

* * *

Episode 1, Part 4 

"WHADDYA MEAN THAT ONLY THE WINNERS GO HOME!" said a blue, spiked animal.

"Calm down, Sonic…" said Male Wire Frame, eager to not be hurt. "You're not worried you'll lose, are you?"

The blue hedgehog, which was apparently named Sonic, zipped up to the stage, almost (but not quite) too fast to see.

"No! But, eventually, even my friends will lose, and they won't get to go home!"

"That's our Sonic," mumbled a red echidna next to me, "Always thinking of others…when he's not thinking of himself, that is…"

The Male Wire Frame cleared his throat, or at least what he passed off as one. "You _could_ always wish your friends home, when you win…"

"No thanks," said Sonic. "We're not participating in this twisted little tournament at all!"

"You don't exactly have a choice, now do you?"

"Wait, wait, wait…" said a Blue-clad swordsman next to me, with hair to match, "Do you mean to say that, if any of us refuse, you _still_ won't send said people home?

"Them's the breaks."

"I know something I'd like to break," said someone in the crowd.

"Yeah!" said Fawful, who apparently didn't die, "That Wire Frame is making me angry, like many Red-seeing bulls on the hottest of August days! I HAVE FURY!"

The crowd began to mob.

"Fine," said the affair's host, "But 'break' me, and you 'break' your only way home."

That quieted people down.

"So, now that we understand each other, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

* * *

Episode 1, Part 5 

After everyone had gotten settled into their own personalized rooms, I checked my watch.

_-Hmmm…'bout an hour to the first fight. I guess I'll get to the concession stand!-_

True, I just wanted to get there and be able to get back in line twice. I admit I'm not the most fit person in the world. But even so, I wasn't expecting other people to want food as much as me.

After waiting about 20 minutes, a looked at my watch. "The food better be good here…"

"It is!" said someone, walking by.

I turned and looked. "Link? That you?"

Link turned. "Mario! Hey, I realized when he said we were all from different time periods why you'd never heard of Hyrule. Can't say I blame you. Grand things like that, unfortunately, tend to become legend over time. By the way, if I can judge the future by the food alone, then, by Din, I might just stay here!"

Mario looked down at Link's plate. It had a small portion of every food item on the menu on it. A _very _small portion, considering there were about 100-1000 items on said menu.

"You went all out, didn't you?"

"Pretty much…you plan to?"

"Only if this line actually moves!"

Eventually, after a couple (hundred) introductions, a lot of counting floor panels, and a small fight between Knuckles and Wario, I got to the counter, with 5 minutes to spare.

"Let's-a see…" I said, "I'll have the Mushroom Pasta, extra parmesan, please."

"What kind of sauce?" said the Female wire Frame working the joint.

I looked at all the different kinds of sauce on the menu. Then a little boy, about 12, with a baseball cap, a baseball bat, and a backpack ran up to me. "Try the Delisauce! It _literally_ tastes great with everything!" then he ran off, yelling back, "My name's Ness, by the way!"

I slowly turned to the cook and said, "O-kay. Delisauce, please!"

"Anything to drink with that?"

"Chuckola Cola…with a squeeze of Pik-Nectar."

"Alright…your total is $10.28, or, 128 Mushroom coins! Have a nice day!" she said, pouring Delisauce with 1 hand and Pik-Nectar with another, then whipping out my dish.

As I paid, and then turned around, Luigi nearly bumped into me. "C'mon, Mario, the first fight is starting!"

* * *

Episode 1, Part 6 

"Now then," said Male Wire Frame, on the stage, "I will explain the rules. You will be teleported to a place of random choosing. Then, you will fight. Hard. The only thing prohibited is killing. Do so, and you'll be disqualified. Then, you'll be killed. Items from all the various worlds will occasionally and randomly fall out of the sky. You may use any item you pick up. Now, I will draw the first two fighter's names out of a hat…"

No sound was made except the shuffling of paper (in the hat) and the crunching of nachos (in Link's mouth). Finally, the Wiry Host drew out two slips of paper with one hand. He opened the first one up, and said, "Ganondorf Dragmire! You are Player 1!"

There was an audible gasp by much of the crowd. Ganondorf was extremely powerful, and if you got a D in history, you knew about his legend. He was the self-proclaimed King of Evil, and almost rightfully so. The drawings of him as a child, recovered in a ruin, made people quiver with fear. His Adult self, both now and in the drawing, sent people running away, driving logic out of their minds. And the drawings of him in his "pig form" were never released in any museum, because all but 2 archaeologists went insane, just by looking. I looked over to Link, who was watching the clock, unshaken. I was in awe. He must be the recipient of the Triforce of courage, if he was able to not only face Ganon, but fight him.

"And as for name number two, we have…Bomberman!"

The robot bomber stood up, shakily, slowly coming onto stage as Male Wire Frame ran off, saying "To win, you must knock your opponent off the stage, knock them unconscious, or knock them until they give up. Now," he said, stopping, "Let's spin some wheel!"

He gave one of those game show style wheels a spin, and it spun. And spun. And spun. Finally, it stopped on…

"Mumbo's Mountaintop! Tel-e-por-tation, baby!"

And the fighters slowly disappeared off the stage, finally turning invisible in a green flash of light. The big screen overhead turned on. Several people from past times were in awe at the TV itself, the rest were in awe at the size.

Mumbo's Mountaintop was a crisp, clean, grassy setting with a stone totem pole in the middle. Several huts, one shaped like a yellow skull, surrounded the pole. Ganondorf suddenly appeared a dark portal of light. (Yes, I know that's a paradox, but it was also a good way to describe his portals.) Bomberman floated down, spinning slowly, on a simplistic jetpack.

"START!"

Ganondorf pulled out an evil-looking sword. He swirled around, yelling with fury, heading toward Bomberman.

"That all ya got?" yelled the little robot, as he pulled out a light blue bomb, and tossed it. It landed at Ganondorf's feet, creating a mist that coated him in crystal (or, at least, ice).

"Ha!" said Bomberman. "And you call yourself the King? I should have known! History usually gets everything wro-"

At that moment, Ganondorf broke out, raining hail all over the cheery landscape.

"Not bad." Said Ganondorf. "I seem to have underestimated you slightly." He swung his sword, creating a beam of curved darkness. "But only slightly!"

Bomberman dodged the blast, jumping in front of the totem pole, and then jumping off after lighting a bomb with a very short fuse. The bomb exploded, destroying the base of the pole and sending it falling almost all the way to Ganondorf.

I say "almost" because Ganondorf calmly watched as it started to fall, then vaporized it with a blast of darkness when it was about two inches from his head. He then turned, and said.

"Really, is that the limit of your abilities? I expected more of a fight…."

He then shot yet another blast, which Bomberman intercepted by having a bomb absorb it. Instead of it detonating, though, it redirected the blast into the sky. Everyone noticed then, before it disappeared, that the bomb had an arrow on it.

"Directional Bomb." Said the Robot in White. "Not a bad show, huh?"

Ganondorf said nothing, but rolled backward, sticking his hand up in the sky. Suddenly, where he stood before rolling, there appeared a small army of bats, or I nthe Hyrulian name, Keese."

Bomberman backed up, then tripped over something, sending up sparks. He looked down to see a Fire Flower. Getting the gist of what it did by what happened when his foot touched it, he picked it up and started to torch the bats. But these bats actually braved the fire, and used it as a weapon, being powered-up by Ganondorf.

"So fire doesn't hurt you huh? Well, how about ICE!" B-man shouted, tossing another Freeze Bomb. The Keese didn't freeze, though, they disintegrated. Ganon and Bomber were both confused by this, but soon decided to continue battling.

Before they could, however, Mumbo stepped out of his hut. A shout came from the real Mumbo, "Hey! That Mumbo! But _I'm_ Mumbo!

Somewhere off-stage, "Don't worry! Just a hologram! Everything is mechanical! That doesn't mean it's not dangerous, though!"

'Mumbo' looked startled. "What have you done to my home?" His mountaintop had been scorched, plowed, and ripped apart by the battling that had happened before and during Male Wire Frame's explanation. "Grr… EEKUM BOKUM! ROLL!"

A small pink creature ran away from Mumbo as he cast a spell that went soaring to the mountain behind them, which started to spew out rocks, which, did indeed, roll down the mountain.

Ganondorf quickly flew above the boulders. But turning around, he saw Bomberman was ascending by jumping on the boulders, then jumping off quickly.

Ganon shot a few blasts, each time destroying the boulder Bomber was about to jump off of, so all Dragmire did was lessen the boulders. Finally, Ganondorf shot as Bomberman was jumping, but Bomber, being quick on his feet, shot out a grapple bomb. He held o nto the fuse, which extended, and the bomb itself split into three "prongs". They then closed around a smaller boulder, and pulled Bomberman up while the boulder went down. This created a catapult effect.

As Ganondorf Dragmire flew after him, B-man tossed down three Circle Up Bombs. Each one landed beneath Ganondorf, and detonated straight up I nthe shape of a circle. But Ganon dodged right on the first one, left on the second, and sped up on the third, and the finally fired back with lightning The thunderbolt hit, short circuiting the robot, who then fell, conscious, but unable to move.

As far as the guys who put in the subtitles could tell, Ganondorf's mumblings were along the lines of "Too bad about the no killing rule…" Ganon then shot a blast under Bomberman, which stopped I nthe middle of the sky, and widened into a portal. Bomberman fell in it, fell out of it a few feet above the lake. After about 2 seconds, the lake exploded upward, and Bomberman was transported back, good as new. The blue Jinjo, whose "island" had not been affected by the blast at all, looked around, then jumped off into the now dry lake, climbed up the ramp, and scurried off.

Ganondorf soon teleported in to congratulations from several villainous and a couple heroic congrats. Ganon stepped through them all, considering it was one big crowd, and walked off.

Oil tears were forming in Bomberman's eyes as Male Wire Frame bent over to the robot, whom hadn't moved from his lying-down position since he got there. "Don't worry," said Male Wire Frame, "You have to lose twice before you're kicked out…"

Meanwhile, (and I only know about this because later I watched the security tapes) Ganondorf, still walking down the hall, Bowser leaning against the wall. Neither seemed to take notice of each other, then…

"So you're Ganondorf Dragmire? I'm a big fan." As he said this, Bowser kept his confident smirk, laid-back position, crossed arms, and closed eyes as they were. "In fact, I've based a lot of my work on you."

Ganondorf stopped for a second, said, "Well, isn't that just peachy." Then continued walking on.

Bowser moved from wall, uncrossed his arms, and turned toward Ganondorf. "I have a deal for you."

"I don't make deals." Said Ganon, walking on.

"The first time Link beat you, he had the Sages' help. And he made sure he learned your weaknesses while getting that help. After he sent you to the Dark World, he trained, and you couldn't. Therefore, even once you finally got the full Triforce, and with no help whatsoever from Sages, he could beat you every time. But if he didn't know the villain's weakness…"

The whole time Bowser was talking, Ganon kept walking. But when Bowser said the last sentence, Ganon stopped in his tracks, with a startled look on his face.. Then he turned round, now calm again. His words, however were not calm. "What do you want, reptile?"

Bowser kept his smirk and his closed eyes, and began walking toward Dragmire. "Quite simple, really." Said Bowser. "Link…does not know my weaknesses. And the Mario Bros…don't know yours." He stopped a foot front of Ganondorf.

A look of realization crossed over the King of Evil's face. Then, an evil smirk came over the King of Evil's face.

Bowser opened his eyes, uncrossed his arms and held out his right hand. "So…do we have a deal?"

Ganondorf frowned, looking down at Bowser's hand. Then, after about 3 seconds, he looked back up, smirking again. He stuck his palm into Bowser's. "Deal."

* * *

Ooh! Evil happenstance! Cliffy! MWA HA HA! You'll note I'm presenting this as if it were a TV series, with an movie made up of 3 or 4 episodes kicking off the series, well, that's because if I ever get rich and famous (that's a laugh!), then I plan on making this series. Sure, it'll be a bit out of date, but hey, it's all good. ;) Now, Review, or Santa will put you on his Naughty List.  



	3. The final three of Episode 1

First off, I'd like to say that none of these characters belong to me, but the plotline does. If plotline in genral or in full is stolen, I will sue,

demanding the cost of my lawyer, the trial, and some more money for stealing it, and the demand that you will give me credit. Actually, you

don't need permission so long as you give me credit. Then, "steal" all you like. So long as you give credit. To me. Yeah.

To my loyal reviewiers:

**doubledude:** Yes, Yoshi and Megaman will be in this. In fact, pretty much every character that's appeared on one of Ninty's systema I can think of will be in here, besides those I deem not worthy or too mature, or something like that.

**Pyromaniac Aru of Pherae:** Kudos to you for reviewing not once, but twice!

* * *

Episode 1, Part 7 

Meanwhile, back in the stadium, the Male Wire Frame was explaining that the rest of the fights would not be going one-by-one, more like…100-by-100. Time restraints and all.

Everyone was pretty much randomly paired up. Looking up to the board, I saw Bowser was going up against Jigglypuff. _–That'll be a short fight…-_. My brother was paired up against Megaman. Myself? Vs. Metaknight.

A red robot walked up next to me. "Hello!" said Protoman. "And how is Mario today?"

Him and I had been introduced in the concession line. Neither of us liked the other. Megaman and Zero, whom I actually liked, and Luigi stayed out of this little duel.

"You know," said the android, or cybrog, or whatever, "I've been curious…obviously, you're human…so what kind of powers d you have that'd make you such a good fighter?"

"Not any, really…" I wasn't counting the fire control thing, because I really don't use it that often.

"…So, you use tools?"

"A hammer, and occasionally, a plunger."

There was a short silence. Then, the red guy started laughing out loud.

"Oh man!" said the robot wonder (as in, I wonder how he ever became a hero), "That is just pathetic! A human? Just an everyday human? How'd you get into the tourney? Bribe Mr. Frame over there?"

Luigi got into the fight now, or at least tried. I stopped him by placing my hand on his chest, and gently pushing back. I then said to Protoman, slipping back into my Italian accent, "Well-a, Mr. Proto, I can-a fight with the best of-a them."

"The best of who? The Snail League? AHAHAHA!"

A couple (more like a lot) of non-humans laughed.

I was about to say something, when the red robot said, "Tell you what! I'll try and get Framey over there to show your fight separate from the others. Then yo ucan show us how "good" you are!"

My mustache twitched with anger, but I stayed calm. "If you insist."

Protoman said, "Good! Just try not to get hurt too badly! HA!" Then he walked off, laughing, and the crowd dispersed.

Luigi mumbled something in Italian I'd dare not repeat in public. No swear words or anything, but it'd insult a lot of people besides Protoman. He then turned to me and said, "You better beat Metaknight into the ground. Then, beat Protoman farther into it!"

I remained calm, as best as possible, anyway. "Relax, Luigi. The guy may be a jerk, but we'll show him…not now…but later."

Protoman suddenly shouted, "And your Mama so ugly, she has to sneak up on a box of matches just to get a light!"

Luigi had to hold me back.

* * *

Episode 1, Part 8 

A little later, I slowly ambled through the hall, where all the fights were being broadcast. The few fighters whose fights had ended, or they weren't fighting yet at all, were watching intently. I looked occasionally, and I saw the following:

Link under Dr. Wily's latest mech, stabbing straight up.

Banjo-Kazooie firing eggs, but mostly missing, at Louie.

My brother short-circuiting Megaman with his powers, but then getting shot with Mega's blaster.

Mewtwo and Samus, both blasting away, and

Ness using his Psi Powers to lift Knux in the air, and throw him into Corona Voclano, ending his fight.

I sighed to myself. _-Maybe he's right,-_ I thought. _-Almost all of these people are either not human or have some kind of power. What do I have?-_

**You have your heart.**

I lifted my head. _–Who said that?-_

**Your memories…** said the voice, as I went into a flashback…

20 years ago…

**Remember when you were but 8 years old?**

_-Yes…I remember…-_

**If you truly did, you would not be in doubt of yourself, would you? Watch…**

A small boy in a red cap, blue overalls, and the trademark cap we all know and love ran up to a larger figure, obviously the dad. "Daddaddaddaddaddad!"

The dad purposely waited a few anxious seconds before slowly saying, "Yes?"

"The other kids are making fun of me! They say that jumping high is square compared to muscles, and speed, and stuff like that! Why can't I have something groovy?

The father got down on bended knee. His eyes gleamed with love for the little child as he said, "You do have something 'groovy'. You have your heart."

The little Mario looked up quizzically.

"Ha, ha…" laughed his father, lifting his son up for a piggyback ride. "Son, it doesn't matter how good or bad, strong or weak, plentiful or few your skills are. All that matters is the size of your heart. And you, my son, have the biggest heart I've ever seen."

"Really, dad?"

"Really. So, remember, as long as you live, any fight can be won, whether physical, spirtual, mental, emotional, or something else, as long as you keep that big heart of yours. Now, how about we play Superman?"

"Yay!" said the tyke as he was lifted into the sky.

The scene slowly faded away, and Mario's memories spoke up.

**You did remember. And your big heart, and love for Peach, your brother, and the citizens of the mushroom kingdom, allowed you to rescue her majesty several times. But, lately, your heart has not shrunken, but you have forgotten your father's words.**

_-You're right…corny as he may have sounded, I suppose my dad was right. In fact, I know he was! My heart, corny as _I_ sound, will lead me to victory!-_

A voice interrupted my thoughts over the intercom. "Mario! Metaknight! Come to the stage immediately!

* * *

Episode 1, Part 9 

"Alrighty, then!" yelled the Wiry host of the competition, "Today ,we have a face off between Mario and Metaknight! The stage is…"

Metaknight and I watched as the wheel spun 'round. We both anxiously hoped we would get a certain stage (I wanted Yoshi's Island, the only stage from my world, but I don't know what Metaknight wanted, because no Popstar levels were on there). Finally, the wheel stopped, but about two seconds before it started slowing down, the panels all went black.

"Well, let's see what we've got!" the Wire Frame yelled, as the black slowly faded into a stage. "It appears we're going to Death Mountain Crater underground! This stage is highly unstable, but if used correctly, can be a great asset! At the request of several people, including both fighters, no items will be dropped this match! Pure skill here, folks!"

I slowly felt myself disappearing. Then, everything turned green for a split second. I then found myself coming out of a war pipe, while Metaknight fluttered down on his cape, which had turned into two bat-like wings. After he touched the ground, a buzzer sounded.

Instead of attacking me, Meta spoke. "I have not judged you based on species, race, or skills. I judge people by how much of a warrior they are, or could be. And you, my friend, are a true warrior. Your eyes gleam with truth, your heart beats strongly and courageously, and your soul shines with love and concern."

"Thank you, Sir Metaknight," I replied.

"It is a pleasure, Mario. And it will be my honor," he shouted, drawing his sword, "to battle you!"

He zoomed toward me at speeds I wouldn't think possible for a creature made of metal. I jumped aside, but too slowly, as he was back upon me instanteously. He slashed vertically, horizontally, back slash, horizontally, forward slash, horizontally, vertically, lunge. I dodged left, ducked, jumped over the slash, jumped again, dodged right, bent backwards, did a back-flip, and caught his arm.

I then kicked him, knocking him away, and pulled out my hammer, jumping toward him. As the knight shook his head to get rid of the double vision, I swung my hammer. He jumped backwards as my hammer pounded the ground…straight toward a stalagmite.

"Look out!" I shouted

I need not have shouted that warning, as Metaknight already knew that spike was there. He moved his body, which was on level with the tip, upward, pointing his feet to make two of three triangular sides. He did this so perfectly, so quickly, so unexpectedly, that the camera, which had been in a closeup of his face (now his feet) actually moved about 16 feet (8 a second) before going back to Meta to see some more action.

"Hmm…" said the good-evil knight, meditatively. "You show concern in battle for even your enemy…well done. You are not just a warrior, you are a hero. A true hero. And now that I know you are ready…" he swung his sword straight up, and it started glowing. "Taste the fury of my Sonic Blade!" He swung his sword, sending a curved beam toward me, and another, and another.

I can't describe which way he swung his sword these times, because the blasts came too quick to dodge. I just stood there, swinging my hammer in a circle to deflect it, and hope he wouldn't figure out that if he were to move and attack, he'd probably score a few pretty good hits.

Finally, he flew toward me, his cape turned into wings again. I jumped backward, gaining about 5 feet distance from him each leap, him gaining 5 feet distance each time I leaped. In other words, counting my first jump, he was 5 feet away.

He swung his sword again and again, each time making a large crack in the wall. I wanted to fight back, but the flame attack was the only one I could fight back with. I had told myself I wouldn't use my flame powers in this fight, and I intended to keep that promise.

Suddenly, the volcano started rumbling. I barely regained my footing, mostly by sheer luck, and Metaknight met the ground…or I should say, a pillar shot up and met Metaknight. Because he had his sword out, he was able to use it as a pole in a pole vault, and escape before he got hurt, but he did get hit.

I looked around to see pillars, rocks, stalagmites, stalactites, falling and rising randomly. The cracks created by the beams had begun to spew lava, and cracks opened up in the ground, red-hot light bursting from them.

I heard Male Wire Frame yell, probably to us, "Sorry, guys, but I can't teleport you out of this! The volcano is interfering too much!"

I looked around, slowly, thinking things over. Could I escape? Should I use my powers? Even if I do, could I stop this firey earthquake? I took a few deep breaths. Meta looked at me expectantly, yet hurriedly, obviously sensing I could do something, and not wanting to wait until he was dead to find out what.

I slowly spread my legs from a half-foot to a foot apart. I raised my hands in a traditional martial arts style, and closed my eyes, steadying my breathing. I moved my hands delicately, yet forcefully, moving the lava from one crack forward, around, and into its next-door neighbor, shutting them both up.

I heard an audible gasp from the audience (obviously the one-way speaker from there to here was still on). A raised my right hand, and lava engulfed the pillar that had almost hurt Metaknight. The lava then went back down, taking the pillar with it. I took obvious errors out with a method like this, and some unobvious ones I just happened to remember were errors.

Suddenly, as if Death Mountain was angry with me, 3 cracks, 1 from the left, 1 right, and 1 behind, ran steadily toward me, the same red-hot light that came from the other cracks. I mimicked throwing something sideways and backward with my right hand, sending that crack into the other one and fusing both back into solid floor, and I simply lowered my left hand, palm down, to put the other crack back together.

I closed other cracks, both on the wall and the floor, and just when it looked like I was making headway, the volcano really began to heat up. I could barely see through the white-hot light, but what I did see involved incredible fissures that opened up into lava rivers, flaming hot rocks defying gravity and (later, while watching the tape of this fight) the ring of smoke around Death Mountain turn into a ring of energy.

I dropped my hands, a look of panic on my face. _–Too much…-_ was all I could think for a while, then _–I can't do this…I don't have the skills…-_

_**Son, it doesn't matter how good or bad, strong or weak, plentiful or few your skills are.**_

_-Dad…?-_

_**All that matters is the size of your heart. And you, my son, have the biggest heart I've ever seen. Really. So, remember, as long as you live, any fight can be won, whether physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, or something else, as long as you keep that big heart of yours…**_

_-Yes…yes, dad…I will win this fight… I will!-_

I don't remember what happened next. But, according to the video, I got into a really DBZ-ish stance and did a really DBZ-ish scream. Then, the volcano, almost like I sent out an invisible shockwave, started going back into its original state, starting with the differences in the stage nearest me, and ending with those farthest away. Then, the film cut to a shot of the volcano, where the ring of fire's border widening larger and larger, until it had disappeared off-screen. Then, it zoomed back, stopping at

I then dropped to the ground, panting. Meta slowly walked up to me. I looked up, knowing if he even touched me with the hilt of his sword, I'd go unconscious. But, instead of attacking, he said the following words.

"You, my friend, are the most powerful warrior and truest hero I have ever seen. Surely, if I had not foolishly started that eruption, youwould have beaten me." He then turned so his right side was facing me,looked up, raised his sword, and said, "I throw the fight!"

We instantaneously warped back to thunderous screaming and applause. Metaknight whipped his cape around himself, and started to walk away. A happy mob of heroes (no villains) formed around me, and cheered me on for a few seconds before Protoman was suddenly next to me. "Look, I'm…sorry I made fun of you. I guess I was just being my ignorant jerk of a self. Whaddya say? Forgive me?"

I slowly turned toward him and said, "No." Then I put a spark of fire into his stomach, and as he doubled over in pain, I said, "Now I forgive you!". And everybody in the mob, including Protoman, started laughing.

Meanwhile…

"My master," said Male Wire Frame in a dark room, which you could barely make out was a throne room. He was on his right knee, his right hand on his right knee, and his left hand and leg were straight down, touching the ground. His head was bowed. "This tournament is bringing them closer together, not farther apart!"

"Patience," said the person obviously "in the throne", metaphorically and literally, "It is only the beginning of the tourney. Soon, the war shall begin, and in its midst, we shall conquer."

* * *

Oooh! Who was that? Read/ review to find out! 

Oh, and Special Man loves you all.


	4. Episode 2: The first battle of the war

It finally continues! I know this chapter is a little short, but the next one will be really long, I assure you.

Also, I noticed I've got 191 hits. This makes me happy. I also noticed I only have 5 reviews. This doesn't. So, in a couple days, I'm going ot check how many hits this chapter has gotten. I want at least 1/8th of the people who saw this to review it, no matter what tehy thought of the chapter. So, yeah, I've sunk to the level of threatining. I can do that.

Oh, none of these characters belong to me, for every single chapter of this fanfic, blah blah blah.

* * *

Chapter 2, Part 1: 

"Attention, fighters!" yelled the Male Wire Frame from the stage, "Our first round has been finished! The winners of their fights will be put in Block A, the other people in Block B! The winner of A will face off against the winner of Block B in the final battle and the tourney's prize! Now…WHO'S READY TO GET IT OOOOON?"

A cricket chirps.

"Uh…" said Pac-Man, "I think that the cricket is, but no one else really…"

"…That's…good, then, because…we won't be having any more fights…today. Yes, that's right, um…"

Silence.

Someone coughed.

"…Yeah. Just go to your rooms now or something…"

"Ahh!" I said, "This is the life!"

"I know it, bro!" said Luigi, taking a drink from the cooler Peach had just brought in. "Big screen TV, Boom Box, and whatever this red stuff is! (Slurp)"

"I think," said Peach, "That that's the whole purpose. They're trying to make us less upset about us having to stay here. I know. Bowser's tried with me. Oh, and if he ever is hypnotized into a good guy, or something? Don't try his cooking."

"Speaking of cooking…" I mentioned, "What's that smell?"

"GAAAAAH!" yelled Kirby, on fire, running by.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" yelled Roll, running after him.

"Roll, get back here! This falcon did NOT want to be cooked!" yelled a charred Falco, running after her.

While Luigi, Peach, and I laughed, Falco came storming in. "Look, you can control fire. Please put Kirby out, so Roll will calm down, so I can hurt her!"

"What (giggle) exactly happened?" said Peach, as we calmed down.

"Well, Roll comes from a planet of mainly robots. She wanted to try her hand at cooking something for her new friends. She was doing pretty well, as I happened to walk by, Kirby looking over the pot…she added oil, a food staple where she comes from…"

"And she cooked you," finished Luigi. "Mario? Do your thing."

I leapt out of the room, turned left, and…

…ran straight into Ganondorf.

He picked me up by the overalls. "Well, well, well…if it isn't Mario Mario of the Mario Bros…I've been looking for you."

"Look, Dragmire, I don't know what you've got against me, but can it wait until our match?"

"No." he said simply, blasting me across the hall, and nearly hitting Jigglypuff, who ran off crying.

Luigi jumped into the hall as well. "Leave my brother alone, you anthromorphic freak!"

"Two against one?" said Ganon, feigning shock. "That's not fair…we'll have to fix that!"

"CHAOTIC FLAMES!" yelled a crazed voice from somewhere behind me. My brother turned around…

…just in time to be blasted in the chest by a fireball.

Through the smoke, arched forward, ran (moving his arms and legs in an almost random way) something that could compare to a rocker-jester, with blue skin, weird clothes, and a mohawk, tips dyed red.

"Grr…" grumbled my little brother, getting up. "Who are you?"

"The name's Folon," said the clown in an insane voice, with an insane smirk, and an insane posture. He picked my brother up in a similar way that I was picked up. Then he turned his head. "Got 'er, Flak?"

I tuned my head to see a dumb ox of a giant brute, holding Peach above his way-too-muscular-to-be-natural shoulder, grinning stupidly. "Sure do, Folon!" he said. "Boss'll be plenty happy by this prize."

Falco shot the lummox in the eye with his laser. The oaf dropped Peach, holding his eye in pain. Then he turned toward Falco and growled.

"PHOENIX RISING!" yelled Falco, beginning to 'burn', finally diving at Flak and sending the brute through the hallway wall.

Folon had turned his body now, never letting go of Luigi. Suddenly, a cry came the direction I was originally intending to go.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!"

Folon turned his head, watching the flaming Kirby advance toward him. Kirby ran straight by Folon, who was turned sideways from it, as Folon watched, doing nothing, except look confused. The Kirbster ran straight under Folon's hindquarters.

"AHHH!" yelled Folon, tossing Luigi to dance around in pain like the jester he was. Luigi pulled out his hammer, electrically charged it, and hit the fool where the sun don't shine.

We all cringed, going "Ooo…" as the clown let out the highest squeak I'd ever heard, and then fell over. I commented, "He won't be having children for a while…"

Ganondorf quipped, "I doubt he'd ever have had children anyway…"

Then he turned toward the three heroes, rising in the air, black lightning surrounding him…

…and then a polygonal figure tackled him, along with a few more.

"The Fighting Polygon team."

We all turned to see Male wire Frame standing in the back of the hallway, Jigglypuff cowering behind him.

"Each individual polygon is a substantially weaker version of one of the fighters. They aren't strong at all, but often their sheer numbers will overwhelm."

"Numbers never won a battle," quipped the King of Evil, blowing the few that had tackled him away. He then flew off, taking the gorilla and the crying clown with him.

* * *

Episode 2, Part 2: 

As the fights continued, more and more fighters fell out of the competition. I heard nothing more from Ganondorf Dragmire, except of his incredible fighting abilities. I found myself paired against some of the stronger fighters of the universe, still somehow managing to win each time.

My first real fight, against Olimar, was tougher than I thought, but nothing really exciting happened, and the fight was pretty short…and pretty tiring.

My next fight, however, was a doozy.

"Way past cool!" said my opponent, Sonic the Hedgehog, as we faced off on Pokemon Stadium. I started off by throwing a fireball. ZIIIP!"

"Missed me!"

Hammer strike, punch, kick. Sonic stayed two inches away at all times. "C'mon, you gotta do better than that!"

I grabbed the nearby beam sword and swung it horizontally in a single move. Soic ran to the edge of stage, turned, and ran "through" me, all before I finished swinging. I was sent flying, sideways, spinning counter clockwise if you looked at top of my head, which was lying even with the ground, along with the rest of my body. The beam sword came down in pieces.

"You gonna give up yet, or…"

I gathered a fireball, and swung it, leaving a flowing trail of elegant flame behind. Too slow. Sonic sped to other side of the stage. I continued the swing, throwing the fireball toward Sonic at its end. He used his Blue Tornado attack, sending my fireball into the air and adding ot the fireworks. Then he sped into me again. I only managed to stop myself from flying off the stage by grabbing onto the platform.

I was hanging like someone in a mid-evil dungeon, when Sonic sped in front of me. He looked at an imaginary watch, tapping his foot. "Time for me to finsih this, and go grab a chili dog," he said, launching a kick attack.

I somehow managed to catch his foot with my left hand, then kick him to the other platform with my right foot. He jumped back down on stage, and we started circling each other. I started to make a fireball, and he literally ran circles around me. Tight, fast circles, sucking away the oxygen. No oxygen, no fire. And no consciousness. I knew he'd stop as soon as I was unconscious, before I died, but I wasn't letting either happen. I pulled out my hammer, and stuck it in front of me.

BAM! Sonic went flying, but landed on his feet, beginning to spin in a circle. I grabbed a certain item I'd had my eye on ever since he'd "tornado'd" around me, and threw it in the Spin Dash's path. He immediately uncurled, and tried to stop, but friction wouldn't let him. The sparks created by his feet set off the motion sensor bomb faster than his actual feet did.

As he fell down into the black abyss, I heard Male wire Frame's voice declare me the winner.

And as I looked up to the board to see who I was facing next, I gulped.

* * *

Who will he fight? You'll never find out if you don't review, for goodness sake. ;) 


	5. And so ends the movie

I'd just like to say that this is the storiy's biggest chapter. Over 6000 words, not counting header/footer I'm typing now. My hands are numb...so you'd better review!

Oh, I also noticed that I'd accidently had anonymous reviews disabled. My bad. Just to make up for it, I'll keep updating until the story is through, whether I get no reviews, or a million. though, I'd still like it if you did review...

So, read, enjoy, and be merry!

* * *

Episode 2, Part 3 

"Oh no…" I grumbled. The tag-battle part of the tourney had begun. I was paired up with Luigi. That was the good part. We were going up against Flak and Ganondorf, though. That was the bad part.

Luigi sighed. "Of course we'd go up against two of the worst villains ever to fight us. Link and Zelda are going up against Bowser and K. Rusha…and Marth and Roy are against Wizpig and Risky Boots…Shantae and Roll are fighting GeminiMan and Amye…"

We continued down the list, and in every single fight (and there were way too many to be coincidence), two heroes were facing off against two villains. And believe me, I'd gotten plenty suspicious since Ganon and his cronies attacked us. I turned to confront our host.

"Male Wire Frame!" I shouted.

He turned. "Yes, Mario?"

"Okay, in every single fight, two heroes are fighting two villains. Can you explain why more heroes and villains aren't fighting each other?"

"Simple; I didn't feel like it."

"What? So it's not all random?" said Luigi, stepping in.

"It was," said the criss-crossing announcer, "Until some…unexpected turns of events came to light."

"What events?" asked Luigi.

"Yes, I haven't noticed anything happen-" then I was interrupted.

"You had better go get ready," said Male Wire Frame, a hint of 'You'd better do what I say or I'll crush you' in his voice.

"Fine…" said Luigi. But I wasn't so compliant.

"You had better tell us what's going on, or else we'll tell everyone something fishy's up!"

"They already know," said our our-so-unlovable host, hitting a button on the wall. With that, Luigi and I began to fade into the air, then finally teleported away in a brilliant flash of green light.

We reappeared in a dark, gothic castle that was battered, beaten, and almost, but not quite, in ruins. We heard footsteps behind us, and turned to face the threat.

Flak, lumbering along like usual, slowly walked into the room, grinning like the dunce he was. Ganondorf came down from levitating behind us, trapping us between a rock, a hard place, and a really big statue of a Stalfos.

"Well, Mario Bros., looks like your time is up. No items to help, no friends to cheer you on, and no living if you lose. Let's begin, shall we?"

Flak charged at us from behind me, in front of Luigi, (back to back bros.) and Luigi slammed into him, electrically powered, sending Flak through the wall and ruining Ganon's Castle even further.

I leapt at the King of Evil, hammer ready to strike, and he waited till I was about a foot away, then pulled out his sword. "Grahaah!" he yelled, as he blocked the hit, then spun his sword counterclockwise, then slashed horizontally, followed by a backslash with a spin. I dodged both, then swung my hammer to block the spin. His left hand held the sword, both my hands holding my hammer, his head turned toward me, and

His body turned sideways from me, so I was looking at his right shoulder.

Ganon's right hand clenched, commanding the unholy ground I was standing on to enclose around me, but in doing so, let loose with his sword. I jumped over his head, in front of him, doing a side-flip and turning a 180 so I ended up facing him. I shot a curved fire shot to him, which stopped about two inches in front of him, starting off a wildfire. He put his right hand forward, making a circular gap in the flames, then turning them blue, collecting them into one mass, and sending the stream straight up, turning it into a giant, flaming, dark blue snake.

I jumped, hammer raised once again, shouting a battle cry. "HIII-"

"-YAH!" my brother finished for me on the other side of the battlefield, in the exact same pose I was in. He swung the hammer down, scoring another successful blow to the giant known as Flak, but not seeming to do anything besides make the strongman stumble back a bit. Even though Flak had only hit twice, one of them a grazing blow, Luigi's left overall strap was torn off, and his left eye was black and swollen shut.

The gorilla grinned, mumbling to himself. "Hehehe…my CO Power meter is full!" he suddenly shouted, letting Luigi see his watch, (which apparently was really a power meter) which was glowing.

Suddenly Flak frowned, beginning to glow. "Graggkah…straggg…FLAK SMASH!"

"What are you, The Hulk?" Luigi asked Flak, mockingly, though I could see the fear in his eyes.

"BARBARIC BLOW!" Flak shouted.

Luigi began to back up, yet still kept up the insults. "Congratulations, you used a three-syllable word!"

Flak let out a roar akin to that of a gorilla-lion-our uncle when he's angry hybrid. He leapt about 11 feet toward Luigi, slamming his fists down on my brother. He missed, only slightly, still letting the blow hit my brother, but also hitting the ground, and sending out a shockwave that sent my brother flying.

He then charged after my brother, into the woods surrounding the castle. Sadly, I don't know the rest of Luigi's fight. But with my fight, things had begun to heat up like crazy. I had beaten the snake, which burnt up in purple flames, and jumped toward Ganon, foot first. He raised his sword up, aiming for said foot, but I moved my leg slightly, moving the sword and creating a platform for me to stand on at the same time. Before the evil king could react, I flame-punched one, two, three times, but Ganon's head moved just the right way each time, so he evaded all three. He then flung the sword upward, catching it, but not me. I landed on my feet, rolling backward and picking up my hammer, which I had dropped.

I raised my mallet just in time to block a vertical blow from Ganondorf, who gathered purple energy around his right fist, and sent it forward along the ground with a punch downward. He, once again, loosened up on the sword, though, so I was able to jump away. He then raised his hand above his head, and a black ball of light (paradox number 2!) formed, swirling and bending and twisting in and out of itself, so it looked as if even Ganondorf Dragmire himself could not hold in the magic. He finally let it go, sending 6 balls of bright light, with a tail just as bright on each one, hurtling toward me.

I used my hammer to just barely block them all, sending the first one into the second one , sending the third back at behind me, sending the fourth to my left, the fifth straight up, and the sixth actually missed me altogether.

I took opportunity of this mistake, jumping into the air, swinging my hammer. Instead of blocking it, the terrible tyrant dove under me, slicing my left shoulder, making me drop my hammer and making my left arm useless.

As soon as I landed, moaning with pain, I turned for my hammer, but Ganondorf punched me away, then flew toward me, swinging the sword straight down. I blocked wit ha flaming punch, and then blocked two more sword swings before a horizontal swing sent me flying. I felt the fresh blood on my cheek, and then created yet another flaming fist. I leapt, punching at Ganondorf, but he grabbed my hand, dispersing the flames, and cracked my knuckles, sending me, screaming, to my knees. With his right hand, he raised his sword for the final blow, and I looked up knowing that I could do nothing to stop it.

But my brother could.

He swung his electrically charged hammer as he jumped, sending Ganon skidding across the ground, making him drop his sword. My brother then turned to me and said, "Yo, bro, what do you know?"

I shouted for joy, half hugging my brother, (one arm of mine was useless). Then we heard Ganondorf rise. I dove, picking up my hammer and taking a fighting stance. Luigi ran to my side.

"Huff…hah…" gasped Ganondorf, finally tired out. "I must admit…you two are several times stronger than I expected…if your brother is half as tough as you are, then I'm not sure I can win this fight as Ganondorf…" He then rose into the air, which seemed to speed away with him, along with the rocks, trees, and even the ground itself.

Finally, Ganon's arms and legs began to grow, and his body turned into a chest, a tail and lower body seeming to grow from it. His feet turned into hoofs, and his knees buckled forward, rearranging his joints with a loud crack, similar to that of lightning.

His head turned toward us, his eyes the most piercing red I've ever seen ,but slowly fading into an even more piercing, and very bright yellow. His head got larger as his neck widened, his hair becoming muffled and tangled, his nose and mouth fusing into a snout. Finally, two tusks spouted from said snout, finishing his transformation into the most fearsome creature ever, Mandrag Ganon.

My brother and I were shocked and afraid of this form…if you're rounding down by hundreds. If you weren't, we were paralyzed and terrified, and probably more than said terror except I can't think of a better adjective for either.

We snapped out of being paralyzed when two lightning bolts came from the sky into Ganon's hands, forming twin silver swords. He swung those swords vertically, one slightly higher and to the right of the other. My brother and I jumped over the swords, barely, only to be faced by a flurry of more swords.

Mandrag was only slightly slower than Ganondorf, but his strikes were at least 10 times more deadly…on his off-days. Me and Luigi knew it was either dodge those swords or instantly die.

Finally, Luigi worked his way behind the warthog, leaping with all his might toward the creature's head. The creature's tail, however, knocked him aside, into a pillar. He then bent over and, gathering a ball of energy into his mouth, shot a laser beam at me. I leapt again, above Ganon, who just turned the beam upward, zapping my left arm, which was already in pain. Now, I was surprised it wasn't torn off, and I was actually kind of hoping someone would. Then, Ganon turned, swinging his swords again. Luigi shot a beam of electricity, zapping the pig's eyes, and stunning it. I sent a burst of flame down his throat, and he instantly got up, coughing out smoke.

He then tried stepping on us, something probably meant to be a laugh coming from his throat. Then, he stuck his swords straight up at his "sides" and they started to glow. He put the two glowing sticks together, making a large trident. He gathered a ball of static electricity around the three tips, sending it our way. Luigi tried to stop the ball, but, like Bowser's fire breath, the blast was too powerful, and my brother was badly hurt.

The pig then tried to skewer me, sticking the trident into the ground over and over like a pitchfork being stuck into hay. Finally, Luigi jumped toward me, shouting out the name of one of our attacks.

CYCLONE BROS.!

I twirled Luigi around and around, finally tossing him at Ganon, and jumping aside just in time to dodge another blast from the trident. Luigi landed on Mandrag's nose, and then stuck a hand in each eye, sending electricity coursing through Ganon's head…literally. I could see it.

**"AHHHH!" **yelled Ganon, **"My eyyyyes!"**

He then smacked Luigi off his head, only to get a phoenix-shaped fireball in his chest, followed by a few quick hammer strikes as I hung onto his collar with my left hand, which I actually had to kick up with my foot..

He flailed around a bit, then finally picked me off, staring me in the face. I gave a sheepish smile, then an evil smirk as Luigi bounced on, off, on, off, on, off, etc. his head. Each time the King of Evil, who was now getting his butt whooped, was hit, he flinched, finally dropping me.

We continued to pound on him until, finally, he went down. He stood silent for a second, then started whooping and hollering like mad, patting each other on the back, shaking hands, congratulating, etc.

Then Ganon quickly rose, sent out a shockwave that sent us about 30 feet backwards, and shouted **"ENOUGH!"** at the exact same time. He then went charging, holding two swords again, and swinging like mad.

I looked at my brother, he looked at me. We smiled, clanking our hammers together.

TORNADO BROS.! And we were sent spinning, blacking the monster's hits left and right, finally smashing into his head.

Finally the beast went down again, turning back into Ganondorf, and we instantly teleported back, as the computer yelled. "This game's winners are…Mario and Luigi!"

We were met at the teleportation device by a fierce battle, waged between the heroes and villains. We saw Ness and Knuckles battling a giant robot that looked somewhat like Eggman with a lance and a shield. Link stormed through several Black Hole infantry, slicing as he went. Finally, he reached the device, looking over at the unconscious evildoers beside us.

"So you won your match, huh? But, apparently, just barely. Here, it's my last one, but you can have it," he said, holding out a blue potion.

We each took half, and therefore weren't fully energized, but our flesh wounds were all healed. As I tested out my left arm again, Luigi thanked Link. "Thank-a you so much! What can we do to help the good guys?"

"You're probably a couple of the highest-ranked heroes we have…get in there, fast!"

With that, SnakeMan slithered toward us, fangs bared wide. He jumped, going for Link, whose Mirror Shield sent the green lizard fumbling back. He got up, feeling his wounds, where purple blood seeped from. Link jumped into him, foot first.

I rushed next to Luigi, turned to him, said "You heard him, let's get in there!" and dashed forward, punching a Waddle Doo on my way.

Kirby, who was nearby, faced off against Gruntilda, who threw a green fireball at him. He inhaled it, and on his head instantly appeared a crown, flaming with might. He shot 1, 2, 3 fireballs at the skeleton witch, who blocked the first and 2d shots, but was too slow to send a fireball of her own at the third. She was then knocked back by a fiery stream, and Kirby was knocked away, now powerless, by Valter, the corrupt Dragon Rider.

Bomberman tossed a bomb at Larry Koopa, who seemed to have a new obsession every month. This month? Tennis. Using his racket, Larry sent the bomb back, getting into a ready stance in case B-man sent the bomb back.

He was not, however, expecting Donkey Kong to rush in front of Bomberman with a barrel and catch the bomb, then throw the barrel at him. Larry was so surprised, in fact, that he didn't react in time, and got blown away. D-Kong high-fived B-Man, accidentally sending the white Bomber flying. "Sorry…" he yelled.

Flak, who had apparently woken up, charged in front of DK, and they grabbed each other's hands above each other's heads, faces about an inch apart, in a frowning/staring/strength contest. Finally, Flak began to glow. Smiling maniacally, he shouted out, "BRUTE FORCE!" And he started to force DK down to the ground, and you could see the strain on Donkey's face as he was forced down on one knee.

"Hey!"

Flak turned towards the voice.

Buck, my little green orange-mohawk'd little Yoshi friend from the Glitz Pit was standing there, holding a green-spotted egg. "Leave my friend alone!" he yelled, tossing the egg, hitting Flak in the eye and creating a small firework-like-display.

Flak winced, then started to shrink, Kong gaining the upper hand again. When he reached about 5 inches tall, he stopped shrinking, only still holding up against DK because of his CO power. He let go, sending the king of the jungle stumbling, and ran away, screaming in the second-most-high-pitched voice I ever heard.

Meanwhile, FireMan was getting ready to fire a blast of…fire…from his two turret-like arms. I shot my hands into the barrels, sending the fire back in, and causing the turrets to explode. Fire tumbled over, his arms now a mass of wires, and then I sent him into the audience stands, unconscious.

Luigi threw the oddly persistent Waddle Doo over his shoulder, and Kirby sucked him up, turning into Beam Kirby. He then jumped onto Samus's back, sending all his power-up energy into the "battery"/jetpack on her back. She then raised her arm, and, without charging, sent out a massive storm of Kirby's Beam ability, sending Eggman's robots, Black Hole troops, and a very upset Doopliss running.

Luigi and I finally reached Male and Female Wire Frame, the Male with his hands on his hips, and the Female with her arms around the Male is a loving embrace. The Male raised his right arm and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, without their actually moving, the Fighting Polygon Team "dashed" sideways in front of us, hundreds of fighter copies staring us down.

I have a feeling Male Wire Frame would have smirked if he had a mouth. He said, "Attack!" and they did.

"Captain Falcon" and "Amy Rose" leapt on me, attacking relentlessly for a second or two before I sent "C. Falcon" into the stratosphere and "A. Rose" into "K. Rool" Luigi kicked "Zero" in the chest, creating a hole. Then "Zero" cracked into millions of tiny pieces.

We continued like this with much of the team, before they began to overwhelm us. I could no longer tell which Fighting Polygon was supposed to be which as I was punched and kicked at the same time, and finally they had me on the ground, kicking at me.

I don't remember what happened next, but Luigi tells me I created a fireball around myself, sending the polygons into whatever place they referred to as the afterlife. I then went on a flaming rampage, stopping (and waking up) in front of the Wire Frames.

They suddenly separated themselves from each other, stood up straight in the exact same position, and started to unwrap their wires, rewrapping them around the other. They fused together using this method, gaining height, until finally two smash symbols were floating around inside the "head", circling around each other, and the two hearts had formed into one grotesque heart, beating at a rate of hundreds of times a second.

When all was said and done, a giant monster with a muscular chest, but very skinny arms, and hands with claws on the end, stood before us. It had a half-circle head, with no neck, and a gigantic mouth with sharper-than-razor teeth within. The mouth took up most of the space on the "face" and there were no eyes or nose. Two "blades" made from quills like Sonic's, (only pink) emerged from the shoulders and went down the hunched back, creating an effect like they were one.

The monster roared, then sent one of its clawed hands toward us, speed comparing to that of Sonic…okay, not Sonic. But BeastMan. Yeah. Him.

Luckily, Luigi's hammer was out. After he blocked, I slid left, shooting a fireball into its face. The monster roared with pain, but somehow I could feel it wasn't really hurt. It then rolled into a ball, trying to run us over.

I dodged left, my brother right, quickly diving back for a hammer hit, knocking off a few quills. He ended up behind me, after nearly getting shot by Fawful, who was then shot down by Fox.

Luigi yelled for yet another Bros. Attack as the monster got back up, ready to fight some more.

HAMMERTOSS BROS.!

Luigi electrically charged his hammer, and then tossed it to me. I hit it into the wiry abomination's heart, and electricity coursed through it. Soon, its heart blew up, and it fell over backwards, the sledge hammer landing in Luigi's hands. I rushed on top of it, grabbing two of its wires in the places that would be considered a collar.

"Okay, who started this war, and how do we get home?" I yelled angrily.

"B—bow…ser…" the creature said, answering half my question before it's head fell, and it started to fade into the air, finally melting into pink wisps of air, leaving two said wisps in my hands. I unclenched my hands, looking at the wisps, and after a second or two, they disappeared.

"MARIO! LUIGI!" roared a voice at the other end of the stadium. I looked up, and so did Luigi, to see the King of Koopas shouting a challenge, right on cue.

After fighting so many more troops, Bowser was finally in front of us. He said not a word, but formed a boomerang of fire in his hands, tossing it. He wasn't the best shot, but Luigi and I could tell he hadn't meant for it to hit us. We watched it zoom around, finally hitting the dreaded "Tel-e-por-tation!" button, destroying it, and pressing it at the same time. That's when we realized we were on the pad.

Finally, the flash of green light faded away, leaving us to face Bowser on the Final Destination. As the gigantic black wormhole loomed behind us, sending out small stars, one occasionally passing by me every once in a while, we truly saw the evil in the king's eyes for the first time, as he laughed triumphantly. We realized that he wasn't insane…

…He was just evil.

A selfish, evil tyrant who had no thoughts for anyone but himself, and ruled a gigantic empire of darkness with an iron fist. He looked at us with the gleam of bloodlust in his eyes, and said, "The fool, Ganondorf, didn't bother to set it for battle until death, just to battle until unconsciousness. Well, I did set it for death. Finally, we can end the battle that started this adventure. And by adventure, I mean our lives. Ever since I was Prince Bowser and you two were babies you've spoiled my fun and foiled my plots. Well, that ends today, whether it's you two or I who dies. Get ready, plumbers…your heroic adventures end today!"

With that, we rushed toward each other, Bowser's claws bared, our mallets ready. Sharp blades and blunt clubs smacked together over and over. Finally, Bowser's mouth opened and he spewed a beam of fire. Luigi, being slightly faster than I, dodged in time, but I was hit, and had to resort to my fire powers. But Bowser's breath was too powerful, and I was knocked across the stage.

Luigi landed behind Bowser, then made a hurdle toward Bowser, forming a ball of electricity in his hands. My brother let it loose, but Bowser twisted just the right way, so he evaded the ball lightning and scratched Luigi's stomach with one of his spikes. As lil' bro scrunched over in pain, they tyrant kicked him backwards across the stage.

Weeg and I both jumped into the air, him jumping slightly higher. At our intersecting point and the zenith of both our jumps, we used a brothers attack.

BODY SLAM BROS.!

I grabbed Luigi's feet, and smashed down on Bowser's head, or at least tried. Bowser ducked into his shell. Luigi grabbed the round, not sharp sides of the middle spike and began spinning, me still attached. Bowser was spinning to, and so we created a cyclone, sending us all back to square one and are original positions. Bowser suddenly separated his molecules, teleporting over to us as the background changed to an icy mountain.

Bowser swung his head toward us, intending to gore. We both jumped over him, me slamming my hammer into his shell, breaking off one of his spikes, and Luigi stomped on his tale, only to be flung off, not expecting the Koopa King to have so much strength in his entire body.

A cold wind blew past us, sending even more chills down my spine. Luigi was shivering. Even though he usually liked the cold, this was just too much. Bowser charged toward us again, and I waited, swinging my hammer at the last second. Bowser grabbed the hammer's head and swung his claw into the ground. He would've hit me, but I let go of the hammer and jumped backwards to dodge it. He lifted his claw from the ground, forcefully, sending a brown-ish shockwave toward me. I was caught off guard, and hit with the full force, hitting the ground with my face.

"I got him, Mario!" Luigi yelled as Bowser tossed my hammer over the edge. Luigi ran toward Bowser as I got up and the dictator snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a giant stalagmite shot up from the ground, nearly skewering Luigi, who was speedy enough to make a long jump away from it, toward Bowser. But more earth spikes followed.

Luigi twisted around two of them in mid-air, jumped off the side of one to dodge another, used yet another as a pole to swing around and shoot himself forward…

…Then finally was grazed in the side by one shooting upward.

I saw Luigi wince again, as he headed straight for another stalagmite. He looked toward it, too close to do anything. But I could do something.

I gathered a huge fireball around me, so large and hot, that the snowy icecaps behind me seemed to melt away, being replaced by a space-scene, planets, stars, and incoming meteorites as well. I used the fireball as a humongous shockwave, barely missing the now-descending Luigi and destroying all the stalagmites. The flames engulfed Bowser who was sent flying back, near the edge of the stage. Luigi landed where Bowser was, pulled out his hammer, and leapt toward the Koopa King. All this happened within one second.

And the next second was the most horrible one of my life.

Bowser bent his body and neck down, then brought both up, just as Luigi started swinging his hammer. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Bowser moved his head into Luigi, skewering him with his horns. Luigi let go of the hammer as he began to fly backwards, a tear coming out of his eye, a scream of pain, terror, and confusion escaping from his lips. And the worst part was that if Luigi had swung his hammer a second sooner, the blow might not have hit.

Luigi and the mallet both went flying back, Luigi stopping about 4 feet from the opposite end of the stage as Bowser, and the sledgehammer stopping about 2 feet away from me. I picked it up and ran to my brother, hoping he'd somehow pulled through the attack.

I crouched down, holding out the hammer in front of me. "Y-you dropped your hammer, Weeg…"

He was gasping for air, and tears were forming in his eyes. "I-I don't think I'll be needing it anymore…brother." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Please…use it…you lost your hammer…here…" he said, pulling off his hat, and pressing it into my hand. "I want you…to have this…" I clenched my hand around both his hat and his hand. "Take care…of the Mushroom Kingdom…for me…Mario…my brother…"

And then he let out a sigh, losing consciousness.

"Luigi…" I sad, saddened. I felt my eyes blur with tears. Even though we were no longer in the icy mountain, I felt overwhelming cold. I slowly let go of my brother's hand, letting it fall to the ground. I then heard a chuckle behind me. I turned to face the most evil creature known to man.

"That's one bro down and one to go." Bowser said, satisfied with what he'd done. I wondered why he hadn't attacked me while I mourned Luigi. Then I realized that he was letting me feel the grief of losing a brother…and a dear friend…

That was a big mistake.

I took off my trademark cap, and placed Luigi's on my head. Bowser slowly walked toward me, slicing a passing meteor without even looking. As he got closer and closer, my anger built. Finally, the most powerful flame I'd ever made engulfed Luigi's hammer, and I leapt toward the beast, swinging it. I moved faster than I had ever moved before, slamming the hammer into Bowser's mid-section.

He roared with pain as a giant burst of flame shot backward from Weeg's hammer, and forward into Bowser…not his shell, but Bowser himself, as I had made a humongous hole in his shell.

He stumbled backwards, dazed, and I took the opportunity to strike a few more times with Luigi's hammer. Finally, he grabbed Luigi's hammer, and tossed it left, but I didn't let go, so he just kind of moved it aside. Then, he stuck his right claw into my left side, holding it for a few seconds before his left claw smacked me across the face and sent me flying to just in front of Luigi. Bowser emitted a huge flame from his mouth, which headed straight toward me. Unlike Bowser, I probably would not survive a fire shot this large.

With what I thought would be my last breath, I did the only thing I could. I screamed for help. I put my arms in front of my face, closing my eyes. I know, it sounds rather cowardly, but if you had seen that flame, you'd have probably done the same thing.

"I'm coming, bro! Hang on!"

I suddenly felt myself moving sideways, lifted up by some strange force. I looked back to see my brother's face as he set me down, then jumped toward Bowser, whose belly was empty of flames for now.

"What!" yelled the tyrannical king. "How are you still ali-"

Luigi sent a ball of electricity into the hole I'd created. Bowser growled, and I could smell his flesh cooking. I jumped over my brother, hitting King Koopa with my bro's hammer, and sending him about 7 feet backwards, his spikes leaving an indentation where he skidded.

I turned towards my brother, overjoyed. "Luigi!"

"Mario!" he yelled back. Then we hugged.

When we stopped, I said "Here your hat and your hammer!"

"Thank-a you!" said Luigi, as we both put on our hats, then he pocketed his hammer.

"How _are_ you alive, anyway?"

"I don't know!" responded my little brother. "I just heard you calling for help, and then…I was back, I guess."

"Grr…" came Bowser's voice from behind us. We turned to face him, but cautiously backed up at the same time. "You…will…DIE!" he said, screaming the last word, then charging like a mad bull.

We were backed up to the edge now, with nowhere left to go. As the scenery changed to a grassy field, brothers looked to each other.

"Luigi! It's time for that attack!"

"Are you sure, Mario?"

"It's our only chance!"

"Okay!"

We held hands at arm length, turning to face Bowser. I charged my hand with fire, while Luigi charged his with electricity. We created a small ball of spinning fire-electric power, as Bowser continued nearer.

The ball slowly, but getting more rapidly, grew larger as Bowser grew closer. Finally, when he was about 9 feet away, the ball started sending out an invisible shockwave that stopped in his tracks and caused him too walk two spaces back.

"What?" said Bowser, covering his face and gawking at the size and power of our energy. "But…how…you're just humans!"

"Exactly, Bowser!" I replied. "We are humans! And that gives us something that you and all the other villains, human or otherwise, don't have! Humanity!"

"Yeah!" said Luigi, as the shockwave actually caused the stage to bend a little bit. "And that's why we're going to bring you down, Bowser!"

Bowser probably would have retorted, but he was too scared.

Finally, the ball increased to about 4 ½ times our size, and turned into a Yin-Yang symbol…only red and green instead of white and black. We shouted out the name of the Bros. Attack together.

YIN-YANG BROS.!

With that, we rose up the energy ball, then brought it down and forward, our bodies now back to back. We shot a green flame beam with red electricity sparkling from it. Bowser screamed, but could not be heard over the noise of the blast, such a high frequency I doubt any animal could have heard it. How do I know there even was a sound? The deafening silence.

Bowser was thrown at least 70 feet before the beam disappeared. He went at least 20 more before he actually landed, and went skidding across the ground, almost on his back, but leaning a little to the left because of his spikes. He stopped so close to the edge that his left arm actually dangled off it, sending pebbles down to the green field below.

All was silent for a second. Then we heard the overwhelming cheer from the guys back 'home'. Brothers faced each other again, grinning madly, jumping up and down, pretty much going insane with relief, happiness, and, well…joy! But our joy ended quickly when we heard the sound of movement form Bowser's direction.

As he stood up, he began walking toward us, one foot never moving, the other foot dragging it along. He was charred and blackened all over, and several wounds poured out blood, crimson clashing with the green of his shell and, in several parts of the former armor, skin. His left horn was broken off, and most of his hair was burnt off. His left arm and leg seemed to be paralyzed. Occasionally, a bolt of electricity would run down his body, left arm and/or tail.

He spat, or rather croaked, out the words "This…isn't…over!"

But he was wrong.

The surrounding scenery suddenly went pitch black. The only light source seemed to be coming from the stage itself. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a dot appeared on what would be the horizon, if there was one. Then another, and another, and soon hundreds of dots were there. We all squinted, momentarily distracted. The dots seemed to be getting larger and larger. Most were a dusty brown. Finally, we realized that the dots were heading toward us.

Then, there was a green flash of light from somewhere below the stage. The dots sped up, coming in at probably beyond the speed of light. Luigi was the first to recognize a dot.

"Look…it's the Mushroom Kingdom!"

We all stared as the dots continued to come. Even though we shouldn't have, we seemed to know all their names. Cosmo Land. Kanto. Hoenn. Hyrule. Star Haven. Mira. Spiral Mountain. Zebes. Corneria. Macro Land. Omega Land. Johto. Popstar. Mobius. Earth. Dreamland. All the worlds were coming together.

Finally, the Mushroom Kingdom started to slow down. It came to a stop just short of the gigantic stretch of land, which had appeared underneath the stage. Then ,with a flash of green light this place had become famous for, the two lands fused into one. It continued with each and every one of the worlds. And the new world was created. And a new name entered our heads…this world…would be called…

…Nintendo…

It was truly beautiful. Soon, the worlds rounded themselves around some unseen gravity, and became a planet. The stage below us disappeared in a flash of green light, and we were falling through space. Yet, somehow, we were standing straight up on solid ground, and we were swimming in the water, and digging underground. And we knew we were safe.

Bowser looked toward us. "I'm not totally heartless, you know. And, I suppose, in honor of this new world we should hold off this fight until another day."

With that, he flew, walked, swam, tunneled off. And we knew he'd gotten home, to Bowser's castle.

And we were back to everyone, minus the bad guys. Luigi and I were congratulated, hugged, praised, and Peach gave me the biggest kiss I've ever gotten. I tuned to Luigi and said, 'So, are you going to be alright?"

"I think so…" said my brother. "but I don't think I'm gonna be fighting for a while!"

Everyone laughed. Then Viewtiful Joe said, "You guys rock hard! Can I have your autographs?"

Suddenly, pens and paper were everywhere. We refused the autographs, saying we'd get to everyone later. Then, Fox said, "So…what now?"

"They'll probably be back," said Link.

"Then we'll have to fight back!" said Kazooie.

"Right on!" shouted Knuckles.

"Alright, all in favor of forming a team to battle evil in this new world!" my brother shouted, enthusiastically.

Every single had shot up.

"In that case, ladies and gentlemen," I bellowed, "The Heroic is formed!"

The cheer that went up was the loudest I'd ever heard.

* * *

Yeah. Wow. Um, just to clear up a few things... 

1) The mystery figure on the throne was not Bowser

2) I know Final Destination is way too big, but why shouldn't it be outside of the video game?

3)People will die in this fan fic, just not in this chapter. Just to let you all know. Sorry if I scared anyone with the Luigi thing, by the way, or disappointed anyone by bringing him back.

4)You all rock.


	6. Episode 3: BEEP!

Not that much to say, except I think I've overcome my writer's block

* * *

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

It was the first time the alarm had gone off since the building had been built. It was an incredible worldwide system that used magi-technology to detect danger and determine who best to tackle the job. It beeped steadily for about 10 seconds before Mario, the Supreme Commander of the Heroic, came over the intercom.

"Ice Climbers! Banjo-Kazooie! This first mission is yours! Come to my office for briefing!"

Nana looked at her older brother Popo, excited beyond belief. "Oh, boy! Did you hear that, big brother? We're going on a mission! YAY!" Then she began to wildly bounce up and down.

Popo smiled lovingly at his…enthusiastic sister. Ever since their mom died, it had been his responsibility to protect his little sister. He swallowed the lump in his throat, brought back by thinking of his mom again. They then turned toward Mario's office, and started walking.

Popo slipped on a banana peel.

The four of them got to the office at the exact some time, by weird coincidence. They entered, unsurely. After all, this was Mario. He made everyone a bit nervous. But once you started talking, you felt as if you knew him your whole life, cliché as it sounds.

He turned on his swivel chair, facing the four heroes. "Gang's all here," he stated. "Ready for your fist assignment?" Everyone nodded, except Nana, who was still too bouncy to nod. "Good," said the Italian hero. "From now on, you shall be known as Team Double Double Dip. For your first mission, you will also have a 5th member, one of our generals, to accompany you, and train you for the nasty piece of works known as the Hatred. General?"

"Please," said a red haired man, with a backwards baseball cap, and a blue shirt that said HMD on it, "Call me Joe." He stuck out his hand, the VFX watch glinting in the office light. Everyone shook it, introducing him or herself personally. "So," said the movie-magic-maker, "I get to be part of the first mission? Sweet! I'll teach these guys pretty much anything."

"Good," said Mario, trying not to smile at the youth's exuberance. "Now, for the mission briefing." He turned toward the back wall, which was a goldenrod color, and had a red "carpet" with a white circle with a in it, an M-shaped "hole" in the circle, creating a red M, also known as Mario's trademark. With no visible signal from Mario, the circle flipped around, revealing a rather large TV screen.

"Sweet!" said Joe, gawking at the huge screen.

"Why don't we get that in our rooms?" said Kazooie, a little jealous.

Mario ignored them both. Once again with no signal, the screen turned a dark green, and light green shapes appeared. The shades of green suddenly formed into a sphere, and everyone realized they were looking at a globe, a map. The camera then zoomed in to a small island, and a small red blip appeared on the screen.

"That is your mission target," Mario said. "It's a small island off the eastern coast of Hyrule. Its name and nationality have been in doubt for hundreds of years, occasional wars sparking between Hyrule and several other countries from 600-1200 AD. That's After Din in Hyrule. But recently, a small group, claiming to be from Australia, has come in and claimed the island for their continent. Nothing unusual there, just another country looking for a tourist spot and/or oil strikes.

"However, strange things soon happened. Inter-dimensional, if you know what I mean, trade had not been yet established, so when Australia came with an offer, and so quickly, knowing so much about Hyrulian economy, that was weird."

"So…because this Australia place is acting a bit peculiar, you think they're up to something?" queried Popo.

"I had suspicions. So I had a scan done, and look what turned up…"

The screen suddenly changed into a computer log, yet again without tangible signal. The log read as follows.

6:45:27 PM, 09/16/XX: Scan of Unnamed Island. Scanning…

6:46:08 PM: Scan complete. Results found as follows.

Strong magical signal, untraceable in origin.

Fuel producing machine, located at 72 degrees north, 122 degrees west

Oil drillers located at non-specific points around the island

Results: Likely Magi-technology. Origin search initiated…

6:48:11 PM: Machines are copyright Wily CO. Hatred likely up to something. Technical data is as shown below. Also, the pasta in your fridge has spoiled.

The log continued with technical babble involving crystal polymerization chambers and magical symbiosis. Mario turned in his chair. "It's rather obvious that the Hatred hasn't quite gotten their army together. Rule one of base building: shield it from detection before you actually start building."

As if on cue, the red dot on the screen disappeared, no longer able to detect anything. It made no noise or hint that it was gone besides actually vanishing, but somehow Mario sensed it, and half turned around, smirking. "Looks like they just realized that," he said.

"Your mission is to go there and find out what they're up to, then stop it. Here," he mentioned, almost as an afterthought. "Nothing really serious is going on the island, but for future missions…" he handed them all a small, circular walkie-talkie, each one with the fighter's on symbol on it. (VFX watch, Honeycomb, Eggplant) "These can be used to radio back to headquarters. We have made it so it is impossible to be detected by radar. Also, if you push down the antenna and open up the button, a smaller, fingerprint activated button will appear."

"What's it do?" said Nana, suddenly. "Does it shoot a stun dart? Or maybe it's a smoke bomb! Ooh! Or maybe…I don't know! What is it?"

There was a short silence before Mario continued. "I'm getting to that, Nana…it's actually a signal that will be sent out to every technological, magical, and magi-technological system we have. It is a signal for the entire army to stop what they're doing, and come help. However, unfortunate as it is, the Heroic will be very busy causing trouble, so we can't come if only your life is in danger. No, we're talking atomic bomb type-danger, millions of lives in the balance, absolutely positive there is nothing you can do to stop these creeps." He leaned over the desk, a stern look on his face. "Do I make myself clear?"

Everyone nodded a "Yes, sir!" except Kazooie, who squawked out something…not disrespectful, but with less respect than you should speak to Mario with. Mario chose to take no notice of this, and merely wished them luck on their upcoming mission.

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

"Uh oh," said Mario. "You guys had better get to your mission." He then leaned down into the intercom, pressing the button to activate it as those on a quest left the room. "Sonic? Megaman? Marth? Time for your mission!"

* * *

There you have it, folks. The beginning of episode three. Good? Bad? Ugly? Constructive criticism would be heavily appreciated, but flames will...uh...get something...bad...done to them. Ahem. 

Oh, by the way, before anyone asks, I will not be doing Sonic, Megaman, and Marth's mission. I just thought it would be a cool end to the first half (or third) of episode 3.


	7. Episode 3: continuing

"Come on, Six Machine!"

The Crimson clad hero leapt into the air, twirling about, then doing a back-flip and landing in the legendary Six Machine, the robotic Swiss Army Knife. Explosions flashed in the black background for no apparent reason, but finally he sped off out of the metal hangar, nearly running over Jigglypuff, who ran off crying.

The first part of the base to be finished had been the hanger. And with over 200 people (mostly generic reformed enemies) running it smoothly and efficiently, it was a good thing, too. Without this place, transport would be much, much, much more difficult.

Banjo ran up to the flight "power-ups", grabbing a 200-feather pack, and tossing it in his, as he jumped onto a flight pad, then off, nearly reaching the ceiling before gravity stopped him, but did not bring him back down, thanks to the Freaky Beak of the Week, Kazooie.

There were three levels to the hangar. The bottom level was underground, filled with water, and had several pipes of all sizes heading out toward the various seas of the world. There was a pool, roughly 20 feet by 30, a rectangular shape vertically going from the entrance, at the slightest diagonal angle, ready for ships and submarines to be transported. The second level was for low flying, small planes and ground-based vehicles and heroes. It was also filled with power-ups of all kinds.

The third level, which the Ice Climbers were currently on, was made simply as a hangar for planes. Most could take off by way of four large, rectangular holes in the plain, steel walls, but the roof could open up in the case of large flying machines, or ones like helicopters that just needed height.

"Wait a second!" Popo yelled, skidding to a stop. "We have no transportation!" he yelled back to his sister, who proceeded to look shocked, or at least pretend to, since she didn't know what "transportation" meant.

"Oh, no?" said a voice from the sky, just before a red and brown blur swept down, then out of the hangar, taking Nana and Popo with it. The blur turned out to be Banjo and Kazooie, Banjo holding one Ice Climber in each arm. Soon the Machine of Six joined up beside them, then behind then, considering it was coming toward and a little to the right of them. It soon turned and flew on even terms of speed and height with the Bear-and-Bird/Brother-and-Sister duo of duos.

"So, what took you so long?" the Crimson Clad hero grinned, somehow managing to look totally cocky and totally cool and totally idiotic at the same time.

"Had to pick up a couple hitchhikers," said Banjo, grinning right back, managing to get two of the three adjectives above going for him.

"Rather heavy hitchhikers…"Kazooie grumbled. Suddenly, she exploded with anger. "It's enough I have to carry this gigantic hunk of fat with me everywhere, now I've got two little annoyances on for the ride, with about 10 pounds of parka and a hundred of power-ups! Who else wants a ride, huh! Maybe I could pick up your girlfriend, huh, _Mr. Commander_? Or, should I say, _Mr. Pretender_! I'd honestly be surprised if this guy can actually fight, or even move in that TIGHT RED COSTUME THAT HAS LEFT ME **SCARRED FOR LIFE!**"

There was a long silence after this. Nana broke it with the simple question, "Is Kazooie feeling okay?"

"I don't think so…" replied Banjo. "She usually goes off on a much longer rant than that…"

* * *

Shortly after Nana treated the bump on Banjo's head, ("All better! kiss) land came into view. 

"Finally, heh," chuckled Viewtiful Joe, "At this rate, I'm thinking the average flying snail could pass us."

(Short silence)

"Flying snails?" said Popo.

Before Joe could retort, a lime green laser beam shot by them.

"They've been expecting us!" shouted Banjo, as Kazooie dodged to the left.

"No, duh!" Kazooie responded as more lasers quickly followed the first one.

"Enough talking!" Joe yelled, moving his craft's left wing up slightly, then bringing it down, dodging two lasers in quick succession. "Concentrate on dodging those laser beams!" he continued as he brought the left wing down, stopping on the plane's side, moving to the left and above of Banjo-Kazooie. "I don't want any casualties on this mission, do I make myself clear?" he finished, righting himself and firing off a few missiles in the direction the lasers were coming from.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Banjo shouted back, moving his arms slightly to the right to keep Popo and Nana from getting hit.

"Yeah, whatever!" Kazooie shouted, maneuvering in between three nearby lasers. The Ice Climbers were still too surprised to respond verbally, but each gave a small nod.

Suddenly, Six Machine's left wing blew off.

"VJ!" Popo yelled into the explosion.

"Hack…wheeze…" came a choke from inside the smoke, as it cleared. "No worries," said Viewtiful Joe, giving off another cough or two. "I wasn't hit. Just a small malfunction…still, let's hope that was the only malfunction." He looked down at his readings, trying to predict what could possibly still happen to his machine, and what just did. "Hmm…" he murmured.

"What is it, VJ?" Nana called out to him.

"My readouts. Apparently, the entire island is coated by a force field, negatively charged. The lasers are negatively charged, too. So, logically…" he switched on the voice command to the Six Machine. "Electric force field, negatively charged! Go!" With those words, a crackling ball of blue-clear electricity surrounded the Six Machine. Three lasers, each headed for the Six Machine, suddenly veered off course, steered away harmlessly.

"Okay…that was pretty cool…" grudgingly admitted Kazooie.

"Eh, Elementary School Science. Opposites attract, so un-opposites repel." With those words, the lasers stopped.

"Huh?" said Joe.

"I was thinking that too…" said Banjo.

"No, I mean…the lasers have stopped, but there are three rather large negative charges heading toward us…Six Machine!" he suddenly shouted, turning on voice command again. "Positive split-second energy wave! Go!"

Suddenly, a red-clear wave of energy replaced the force field, and expanded to massive proportions, followed by a crackling of blue energy before three stealth fighters, a black-gray color, with black tinted windows, appeared in the sky. This all happened in a split second. The Six Machine seemed to slow down a little, though.

"Stealth fighters? They really _were_ expecting us!" shouted Banjo, as all looked on in awe at the three machines heading toward them. Suddenly Nana gasped.

"VJ!" she shouted again. "Your ship! It's mal-…malfin-… breaking again!"

The movie-magic maker looked to his right wing, to see a small "leak" of fire and smoke emerging from it. He turned back toward the jets, a little scared looking. Then, one of determination came across his face. A roar of flame shot out from his tail as his plane boosted toward the fighters…

…Then past them.

"Hey!" shouted one skeleton pilot/ pirate to another, unheard by our heroes. "He's getting away!"

"Let him go," said the one in back of the triangle-shaped formation. "He won't last long with one wing blown off and the other leaking."

Of course, Joe wasn't intending to last long. He fired off a missile from his remaining wing seconds before the wing was blown off. The missile, having passed through his force field and receiving a negative charge, then created a small hole, just big and lasting just long enough to pass through.

Three cannons in a triangle formation, one in back, just like the stealth fighters, suddenly came into Joe's view as the smoke cleared again. Each one was black-gray, sloppily made, but dangerous looking, with two turrets and wires and computer screens and pieces of metal jutting out randomly all over each cannon. Each one's base could have also been the base for a water tower's container, black metal and foreboding as they were. Joe took this all in before the one on the right suddenly exploded from the very missile he'd fired, the shockwave denting the left cannon, and knocking the right-most turret off the middle-back cannon.

Meanwhile, Kazooie had come in much closer to the three planes, aiming her beak toward the right one. She fired off her Beak Bomber, pushing her wings back to send them skyrocketing forward, her beak damaging the left wing of the right-most one, then causing the middle-back one to explode after she bounced off the right-most one, which now went hurtling into the one on the left due to a bent wing, but mostly bad piloting skills. Everyone looked back just in time to see the explosion.

"Pretty…" said Nana, as everyone else sweat-dropped.

Meanwhile, Viewtiful Joe steered his plane to the left, heading toward the cannon on the left. As he steered and his craft rocked about, A "line" of circles appeared in the force field, creating a rather large opening, which quickly got smaller on the right as it got larger on the left.

As Joe leapt out of his plane, the Six Machine crashed into the cannon, causing a massive explosion that obscured Joe and his fate. Had he landed on the ground, safely? If so, where, and if not, what happened to him? Banjo, Kazooie, and Popo all ran these questions through their minds as they headed toward the island. Nana liked the pretty colors the explosion created.

Suddenly, a great white flash of light appeared beneath them, circular in shape, 40 feet diameter.

"What's that?" asked Nana of anyone who could answer.

"It's a magnet, most likely negatively charged, so Joe was able to pass it," replied Banjo smartly.

"How do you know?" asked Popo.

"My belt buckle just flew off," responded Banjo, a lot less smartly.

"For all our sakes, pull your pants up as we land," said Kazooie, just before firing off a grenade egg into the last cannon's remaining turret, causing it to explode. Shortly after, she squeezed through the force field's hole, landing on the base of the former left-most cannon. Banjo set the Ice Climbers down gently, and then quickly pulled up his pants.

"So, which way did our general land?" Kazooie asked, then said, "I think it's…"

"That way!" said everyone, all pointing in different directions. There was a short pause before everyone said "That way!" again, pointing in the opposite direction they were before. They covered all eight directions on a working compass this way.

Banjo pulled up his pants again before saying "Maybe we should split up…"

"NO!" shouted Nana, suddenly frightened. She leapt onto her brother's head, now eye level with Banjo, just before saying, "Haven't you ever seen horror movies? When they split up, the monster picks them all off…one by one…" she finished quietly, cowering in her parka best she could.

"Please get off me, sis…" Popo said, oddly calm.

After Nana did, Banjo said, "Alright, alright, we won't split up…on one condition!" He pulled up his pants. "Someone has to get me a substitute for my belt buckle…"


	8. This doesn't look good

Well, um, I just realized that I forgot the author's notes and the end of last chapter...so pretend that _this_ went at the end of last chapter, okay?

I'm sorry I haven't been on for a while, but I had writers block, laziness, and groundment. Anyway, here's the update you've been hankering for!

* * *

"So…bored…must…find our general…" 

Apparently, Popo was bored. But, after searching for 3 hours through only 6 miles of jungle in any direction, who could blame him for whining a bit?

"Knock it off, Popo! We're not here to have fun!"

Apparently, Banjo could. Popo quickly became angry, but upon seeing that Banjo's claws were out, he decided to zip his lip.

"Hmm?" said Nana, stopping. Then, after going about four feet, the three others in their little rescue party turned around.

"Come on, Nana! I want to get this over with!" shouted Nana's brother.

"Shh!" she replied. "Listen!"

A few seconds passed, before finally a faint sound came into existence…

_Whiiiiiir_…

"What in the name of Teriyaki is that noise?" whispered Kazooie.

"I don't know," said Banjo, "but we're going to find out!"

"Hold on there, Bear-braaaAAAAAIIIN!" Kazooie said, being taken against her will toward the sound somewhere around "brain" (After all, she was in Banjo's backpack). "You want us to go_ toward_ the sinister noise on an island infested with evil!" she continued as the jungle rushed past and the Ice Climbers rushed ahead of them.

"Did you think we signed up to be heroes to lie around and eat honey all day?" shot back Banjo, who was apparently the glue that was holding these misfits together. "Mario sent us on this mission because he trusted that we could stop the Hatred's plot on this island, and Joe gave up his ship and possibly his life in order to make sure we were okay, because he believed in us too! They both trusted us, and so we have to uphold that trust!"

There was a few seconds in which the only sound was the thumping of their feet against the earth, and the panting of their breath. Then suddenly Kazooie smiled and yelled, "So what're we waiting for!" Right after she said this, she did a front-flip, taking Banjo with her and landing in Talon Trot mode.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the source of the whirring, or should I say **WHIIRRRING**, considering how loud it was. Quickly hiding behind a steel wall , our heroes peeked around the corner…

…and what they saw truly scared them.

At least two-dozen drills were striking into the ground repeatedly with tremendous force, so much the earth was cracking under their feet. The drills were attached to machines on treads that were piloted by skeletons, whose getups clearly showed them to be pirate. Occasionally, a small pool of black liquid (obviously oil) would form underneath a drill, and soon the pilot would notice, and turn off the drill, then press a button to send the metal band around the drill downward, revealing it to be an expandable pipe. As the oil was sent straight up into the machine, the sections of the pipe would light up a dark pink-but-not-quite-red color, to track the oil's progress.

Attached to each machine was a second pipe, or a very large wire, considering it was flexible and movable like a wire. Each wire led to a gigantic flying machine. It looked much like a simple triangle on wheels from a distance, but up close, there were guns and turrets and laser cannons and hatches for dropping bombs, and some other unidentifiable weapons on that ship.

Also, the corners were rounded.

Patrolling around the landing/takeoff strip nearby to an oil field, were several skeleton pirates, and by several, I mean upwards of twenty. Each one had a sword in the right hand and a gun in the left, except for two who held the weapons the opposite way, and thus were obviously left-handed.

"EEP!" whisper-shouted Nana, "Skeletons! I knew there were monsters on this island!"

"They may be undead, but I wouldn't call them monsters," said Kazooie. "They're pretty easy to beat. They work for Risky Boots, a female skeleton pirate whose cruelty knows no bounds."

"And you know this, how?" asked Banjo.

"Shantae told me."

The other three had blank looks on their faces.

"Shantae!" said Kazooie, a bit angrily. "Y'know, the half-genie? Purple ponytailed hair? Red bikini top? Belly-Dancer? C'mon!"

"Well, regardless," said Banjo, wishing not to anger Kazooie, and also wishing not to admit he didn't know who Shantae was, "We need to get inside that base over there." After saying this, he pointed to the dark foreboding base about 700 feet from the landing/takeoff strip.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Popo.

"Well, first, we're going to distract those three, then hide over there," he said, first indicating three guards who were either on break or slacking, because their weapons weren't drawn, and they were all sitting down playing poker, then indicating a nearby pile of boxes, one of which was large enough to hold all three, and open, to boot. "Watch. I saw this in a movie once," said Banjo. He then picked up a pebble and threw it forward, about twenty or thirty feet, behind another steel wall.

"What was that?" said one guard.

"Let's go check it out!" a second one shouted, him and the first guard running toward the pebble.

"No! It's a trick!" yelled the third. "They're over here!" he said, indicating behind the nearby steel wall, in the exact place the little group stood. With that, all three rushed that way, to find two scared kids in pink and blue parkas, a confused looking bear, and an angry looking bird in the bear's backpack.

"Yeah, bear-brain, that worked!" shouted Kazooie, putting her wings up toward the sky.

Suddenly, two blasts of cold air coming from opposite sides froze the guards in place. Banjo and Kazooie looked down to see two no-longer scared Ice Climbers posing proudly.

"Not too bad, huh?" said Nana.

**_KA-CHICK!_**

That was the sound of more than twenty guns cocking.

"Yeah, but not good enough," said Banjo as the Ice Climbers turned around.

There was a short silence, and then the heroes ran.

As laser blasts and gunfire and the occasional thrown sword shot past our heroes, they were contemplating how they were going to get out of this mess. Suddenly Banjo stopped in his tracks, turning around. "You two," he said, indicating the Ice Climbers, "Get behind me and play dead!" They did so, and then he turned to Kazooie. "Use Wonderwing!"

As golden feathers slowly disappeared from Banjo's backpack, laser blasts, gunfire, and the occasional thrown sword all bounced off of Kazooie wings. Finally, though, the blasts stopped, along with a few shouts of "I got 'em!"

You may think the crew stupid for doing this, but the rescue squad was deep in the jungle, and the pirates couldn't see well, as it was getting dark. They could only just barely see Banjo and Kazooie as they fell over, "dead".

A few seconds later, two or three guards ran up, and started checking their pulses and breathing and such. As soon as the guards realized they weren't dead, the guards were unconscious, and no one noticed because all the other guards were gone.

A short time later, it was nighttime, and they were making camp in a cave in a mountainside overlooking the foreboding, sinister, not-nice-to-even-visit place known as the Risky Tavern. They'd found this out a few hours ago, just before the guards woke up and alerted the entire base to their presence. That's why they were in hiding now.

"Well, this has been a dismal day at best," commented Kazooie, poking up the fire, now walking around outside of Banjo's backpack. "We have no food, no water, and there's a massive airship aimed straight at Hyrule from only about 20 miles away! Not to mention that our commander is MIA, and probably dead!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Popo. "Joe is the nicest guy I know, and he's like a big brother to me! I know he's not dead, you just wait and see!"

"Care to give any reason why that might be, short stack?" retorted Kazooie, glancing over to Popo before resuming work at the fire.

"Kazooie!" yelled Banjo.

"What?" replied Kazooie, shrugging her shoulders and glancing at Banjo, before blowing on the fire. Suddenly, Banjo grabbed her by her right wing, and pulled her to the back of the cave, out of hearing range of the Ice Climbers.

"Look!" said Banjo, irritated. "These guys are just kids. They shouldn't even be in this war, and I don't know why they are. But so long as they're here, they need a hero, and Joe is that hero, and until we know for sure, we will not even mention the possibility that he is dead, understand?"

"Well, look here!" retorted Kazooie, "I may ride around in your backpack all day, but I don't have to follow your orders! Who elected you leader of this mess known as a rescue squad, huh?"

Banjo seethed through his teeth, then walked to the middle of the cave. "Alright, people!" he shouted! "We need a plan!"

"Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" shouted Nana, raising her hand like a little schoolgirl.

"Yes, Nana?" said Banjo, holding his forehead.

"How about Kazooie flies us over to the base, and we bust in through the ceiling and take out all the bad guys?"

"Umm…" mumbled Banjo, looking over to Kazooie, who was empathetically shaking her head no. Banjo looked back to Nana, got on one knee so he was eye level with her, and said: "Uh, that's a really good plan, Nana!" To this, Nana smiled with pride. "But…" she frowned at this, and crossed her arms. "They'll…they'll probably have air defenses around the base! Yeah! So, I don't think it'll work…"

"But they don't, really!" said Nana, excitedly. "I saw the base, and I could tell that there wasn't any! I swear!"

Suddenly, Kazooie sighed. "Actually, kid, the truth is…I can't fly!"

"Of course you can fly!" shouted Popo. "I saw you do it on the way here! It's how you got us here!"

"I mean," said Kazooie, interrupting, "That I can't fly without the help of a flight pad!" she sighed again, looking away from everyone. "They have special powers infused by Mumbo Jumbo's magic. I've never been able to fly on my own," she said, flapping her wings for emphasis. "That's why I need to collect Red Feathers instead instead of using my own…my own have never experienced flight, so they won't work with the magic."

There was a long silence, before Nana said, "Well…you can still try…"

"Try!" shouted Kazooie with tears in her eyes, and anger as well, more at herself than at Nana. "I can't just try and suddenly, whoosh, I'm airborne! Life doesn't work like that!" she continued to yell, bending at the waist, to get at eye level with Nana but still seem taller.

"Hey!" shouted Popo, stepping in, "Leave my sister alone! She's just trying to help you out!"

"Oh, please!" shouted Kazooie, as Banjo stood up, trying to get everything sorted in his head. "What kinda fairy tales has your mom been feeding you that you two honestly believe that kind of stupid, sappy cra-"

"KAZOOIE!" shouted Banjo, angrily. Then, as Kazooie stood up fully and turned toward him, he softened, looking almost sad. "Look…" he whispered, indicating Popo and Nana.

Kazooie looked. Their parkas overshadowed their faces, but they were clearly crying, as tears flowed off their cheeks. After a short silence, Popo looked up, anger and pain in his eyes that a person never hopes to see.

"Mom's dead." He said, his voice choked, but full of anger.

Kazooie drew back, startled, and looking as if she was a deer caught in a car's headlights. Then, she slowly reached toward Popo. "I…I'm sorry…"

The eldest Ice Climber turned and ran out of the cave, sobbing all the way. Kazooie looked at Nana, who looked sad at the whole situation. Then she looked to Banjo, whose arms were crossed and eyes were angry. She sighed, wishing her anger hadn't gotten the better of her…yet again…

It was a few hours later. The sky was full of stars, and the moon was full. Popo was sitting at the edge of the cliff, his knees cuddled into his chest, he face resting on his knees. His hood was down, revealing brown, straight hair that covered was cut in the shape of his head, but stopped at his neckline, and the bangs stopped just below his eyes. A small wind was blowing, causing the top of his hair to move around slightly. And a few sobs sounded occasionally, but there were no more tears, indicating he was done crying…for now.

The cliff was just ten feet in front of the cave, and thusly it wasn't far of a walk for Kazooie to take. She sat down on the edge of the cliff, sighing. "Beautiful night, huh?" she said to Popo, looking into the sky.

"I guess…" he mumbled, uncurling, but looking in the opposite direction of Kazooie.

Kazooie sighed again. "Look, I…you see…" Another sigh. "Back in the cave…I kind of…exploded, because…well I don't like myself that much. So when something gets me mad, a take it to heart, subconsciously…and sometimes…I just insult people, so I can knock a few pegs off them…and I'm just kind of thinking, maybe it'll put a few extra pegs on me, I dunno…and when it doesn't work, I just get angrier."

Popo was still looking away from Kazooie, but if she could see his face, she would see one that was still thinking, still angry and sad, but growing less angry by the second.

"I'm sorry, Popo. I don't expect you to forgive me. I know I wouldn't if I was in your position. But…Banjo's come up with another plan, and it requires all of us…working together…so, if you could find it in your heart to work with me a little longer…"

"Kazooie?"

She looked to see happiness in his now red and puffy eyes, and a smile on his face. "I forgive you."

She smiled, truly touched by this little kid. -_I could learn a lot from him,-_ she thought as she started to cry, herself, and Popo pulled her into a warm hug…

…The hug of a brother.

After a few minutes, they separated, and Kazooie gave a final sniff. Then she said: "You know, you're a pretty handsome little guy! You should wear your hood down more often!"

"You think so?" asked Popo.

"Yeah!" said Kazooie. "Why, in a couple years, all the girls will be going after you!" To this, Popo gave a big smile, eyes closed, teeth showing, blushing, nervous giggle, the works. Kazooie, too smiled, then said: "C'mon, Banjo's got some fish cooking on the fire."

"Oh boy!" said Popo, leaping up and rushing inside.

Kazooie softly chuckled, standing up and going inside…

…and she finally felt good about herself.

* * *

Okay...everyone together now...AWWW! Oh, andd in case you haven't noticed, this episode will be four chapters long! Count 'em! But...the first two chapters were kind of short, the first one even for my standards. So don't think this longer than the other episodes. Oh, and starting with this chapter...spoilers for next episode! 

_**Next chapter, Banjo's plan is put into action! But the gang encounters an unforeseen**_ _**obstacle once on the airship. Or...is it really an airship? And whether it is or not, what is the Hatred's plan? And did Joe survive? If so, where is he? Find out all this, and maybe more, in a chapter I just had to call:**_

_**'The Real Superpower of Teamwork!' **_


	9. The Real Superpower of Teamwork!

Okay...hands...tired...longer...than exepected...also, a few questions from reviewers answered:

The good guys are on the Heroic, bad on Hatred. I thought that was obvious. If you meant who specifically...too numerous to count, or name for that matter. You'll find out as the story progresses.

Oh, too another reviewer: very good question. No, the people who lost in the tourney are not gone, yes they are here. Yes, you are happy. ;)

* * *

"Okay, team, has anybody got any questions?" 

That was Banjo. It was shortly after dawn. Our heroes had decided to finally go on the offense, but as seeing how large the enemy forces were, they'd have to take the stealthy approach. That's why they needed a plan, and why Banjo was triple-checking that everyone knew the plan.

"Only one," said Popo. "Where did you get this map?"

Everyone instantly looked down at the map of Risky Tavern, the thought not having occurred to most of them until now.

"It was in the pocket of the guard I knocked out," said Banjo, simply.

"_You _knocked out?" questioned Kazooie. "_I _knocked him out with a wing chop!"

"Well…I confused him!"

"Saying, 'Look, there's a monkey behind you!' only confuses them if it works!" yelled Kazooie in retort. By now the Ice Climbers were roaring on the ground with laughter.

"Y'know, maybe we should just never…speak of this again," Banjo said, saying the part after the '…' very quickly, and rolling up the map. "Now, team, let's go!"

* * *

_CLUNK._

Steel doors made more noise than you'd think when they're being closed. Luckily, no guards were near the side entrance, so no one noticed. You could practically hear generic spy-movie theme song start playing as the team looked into the seemingly empty room.

Banjo looked down to Nana and Popo and nodded. They immediately shot out to beams of icy wind, completely covering the chamber. When the mist cleared, dozens of previously invisible infrared beams had been tinted a dark blue, with a shell of ice around each.

They all twisted and turned around the beams of ice, very slowly, since the freezing process worked on the floor, too. Finally, they reached a solid steel door. "_Fingerprint needed,_" said a computerized voice.

"There was nothing about this on the map…" said Nana, confusedly.

Banjo smirked. "Then we'll have to…"

_WHAM! CLUNK!_

"…Improvise," finished Banjo, gesturing into the room. Everyone then walked over the now fallen door into the second chamber. A bunch of platforms, held up by large towering wood, painted silver and black, led to the other side in a very zigzagging, criss-crossing random way. On each platform was a small, stone, cyndrilical robot, attached to the platform by a band of brown that connected around the robot's middle, and spread outwards into the floor. A large brown disc with a small brown sphere on to of it was on the robot's head. Turning to face our heroes, the robots also had one large red eye. (If you've ever played the original Megaman Battle Network, they looked like StoneMan's arms after being disconnected, only with one large red eye and no mouth.)

Lasers shot out of the eyes, coming dangerously close to Team Double-Double Dip before they could react, and dodge. Kazooie shot a grenade egg at one robot, but it reacted quickly, shooting a beam to blow it up just outside of the shrapnel range. Banjo and Kazooie leapt through the smoke and Kazooie sliced it down the middle with her wing. Two seconds later the bottom half exploded, sending the top half about 10 feet up, which then also exploded.

The Ice Climbers jumped from platform to platform, occasionally smashing or freezing a robot, the jumped up on top of one of the ceiling's rafters, watching Banjo and Kazooie slaughter robots like a rampaging, 20 foot, radioactive lizard slaughters army tanks. Finally one robot was left, just underneath the Ice Climbers. They proceeded to jump down on opposite sides of the robot, a white rope still connecting them. One hammer came from each side of the robot, crushing it flat, and leaving the Ice Climbers hanging, headfirst, about two feet off the ground.

As the Ice Climbers came off their ropes safely, Banjo and Kazooie hopped over to the narrow, long platform connected directly to the entrance, and started walking over to regroup. Suddenly, though, the platforms started moving!

Although the pit was too dark to see into very far, obviously it was deep. And by the time Banjo and Kazooie came to a point where the non-moving platform originally was, the now-moving platform was too far away to jump to…at least, for the Bear and Bird.

The Ice Climbers proceeded to get another rope, each one passing each other, going to opposite sides of the robot, then jumping across. The then faced each other, blowing ice at each other, so the wind connected with the other wind and made a large ice pillar. They proceeded to tie the rope around the pillar, creating a rope bridge without wooden planks, and stopping the platform from moving at the same time.

"Hurry, or the ice'll break!" shouted Popo to BK, as Nana jumped into the pit, grabbing the ropes and "jungle-gymming" across. Popo soon followed, followed a little more slowly after by Banjo, who hesitated because the ice cracked a little bit. After Nana and Popo got the platform and Banjo was about halfway across…

**_CRAACK!_**

The top half (no real dividing line, kind of irregular) broke off, the string slightly above it. The rope, weighed down by the ice, fell into the pit, the platform moving rapidly to make up for lost time. (The other platforms had collected together at the other side of the bridge, forming another narrow platform like the one on the entrance side.)

"Banjo!" went Popo.

"Kazooie!" went Nana.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" went Kazooie.

Banjo swung over to the moving platform, grabbing on with one paw and five claws, and holding onto the rope with one paw and no claws. "Phew…" went everyone except Banjo, who began climbing up the now-stopped platform.

The Steel Door would not open.

"Knock it down, Banjo!" shouted Nana.

"I can't," said Banjo, calm as ever. "I'm not very strong, it's just that the other door was on hinges. This one slides open, no hinges to knock off."

"No problem,' said Kazooie, who had successfully unscrewed the control panel's screws holding it in place while no one was looking. Everyone gathered around as she made a couple movements with her wings. After about three seconds, the light above the door turned from red to green, signifying it could be opened at any time.

"How'd you do that?" asked Popo.

"Well," said Kazooie, "There are three small power generators, two are backups. I turned off the switch for the second one, then cut these three wires so the power would automatically reroute, and with the second offline, the power went to the third, which obviously only had enough power to open the door, not to password-protect it."

"Oohh!" went everyone as Kazooie pressed the button to open the door…

revealing three guards there. Luckily, their backs were turned, so our heroes were able to slip into the shadows. As the three guards stepped in, looking around, Banjo put his blue backpack over the upper half of the first guards, tightening it up. As the other two turned toward the first, Kazooie (who had Split Up and was across from Banjo) gave one a quick Karate chop to spine, and then pushed off the cliff, as the Ice Climbers grabbed the arms of the other one and threw him off as well.

Banjo shouted into his backpack: "Alright, buddy, unless you want to join you undead friends in the pit of no return, talk!"

"Actually," came a muffled voice from inside the bag, "it's the pit of little return. There's a small opening at the bottom-left section of the wall that leads to the other side of the base…"

"Whatever," interrupted Banjo, rubbing his temples. "I'm willing to bet the trip down isn't all that pleasant either way! You see, we want to get to the airship, but our map of the base is incomplete. There is zero visibility of the airport area, and obviously not due to fog. So what kind of traps are set, what kind of guardly posts, etc.?"

"Oh, well, not many. And what few there are can be easily avoided if you go down the hall and take the second door to your left, go outside, and stick to the shadows," said the voice, oddly calm and cooperative.

"Alright, thanks," said Banjo. "Since you told us how to get there, we won't throw you into the pit. But, we're still going to knock you unconscious."

"Eh, that sounds fair," said the voice, just before Kazooie gave another wing chop to the spine. Our heroes then brought the body out of the backpack, gently laid it up against the wall, and moved into the hallway, taking the second door to the left.

As the walked in, the room seemed pitch black. "I don't think we're outside…"said Nana.

"No, you're not," said a cruel, feminine voice as the room lit up.

As our heroes' eyes adjusted to the light, the first thing they saw was a woman who would be about 5'4" if she wasn't on a big-screen TV. In her right hand was a glass of red wine. Her right hand was resting on the arm of the dead-black throne she was sitting in. Her legs were crossed. As their eyes adjusted more, they could see right hand was actually a hook. It was also revealed she was a skeleton in a black jacket, red shirt and red pants, with simple brown shoes and a generic pirate captain hat. Obviously, this was Risky Boots. Also, somehow, Risky had managed to keep her womanly figure even though she had no flesh anymore.

"I see you were actually gullible enough to believe what a guard being held hostage had to say. How very stupid of you. Now," she said, just before taking a sip of wine, "If you would kindly look 2 feet to my right, your left, and 20 feet in front of you…"

They looked, and standing there was a brown bull with black spots and a silver nose ring. It was standing on its hind legs, and was wearing nothing but a pair briefs, colored red, and a silver helmet with small horns pointed forward. Apparently, his real horns had broken off in a previous fight, either that or he was born without.

"This is Red Brief J," Risky Boots continued, shortly afterwards, taking another sip of wine. "He is very large, very strong, nearly invincible, in short, a building with feet. I'd like to say he will be your executioner today, but his man-made horns are too small to cause serious damage, and I do not have the time for him to hit you over and over until you die from trauma. So, he will be taking you my prisoner today." After another sip of wine, the screen flickered off, and RBJ punched his two hoof arms together, grunting.

Immediately our four heroes rushed toward the bull, and the bull…held his right arm outwards, his left arm above his head. Everyone else stopped, confused and wary. Suddenly a bright ball of blue energy formed in front of the right hoof, shooting forward. The Ice climbers, each went left, but BK stayed where they were. "Batter up!" shouted Banjo as Kazooie hit the sphere back into Red's left shoulder. His shoulder went back a bit, and so did his head, but he seemed unharmed totally otherwise, even after the angry grunt he gave off.

Red suddenly lifted up his right leg, putting both his hooves together above his head, spinning around, with a pink energy ring around his waist. He looked like he was doing ballet in a tutu. Banjo and Kazooie were startled, confused, and mentally disturbed by this, so much so that they were hit by his leg in Banjo's stomach.

Banjo was slammed into the wall, groaning as he slowly got up. "Don't worry, I'll get him!" shouted Kazooie. Before Banjo could object, (which was a good amount of time, considering he was in pain) Kazooie Split Up, rushing toward Red, who had just stopped spinning. Red turned as Kazooie sent a flying kick to his skull. Of course, she hurt her leg. "Oww.." she winced, hopping on her leg, just before Red sent her slamming into the wall, unconscious.

The Ice Climbers suddenly reappeared on either side RBJ, freezing him in place. There were a few moments of silence before he broke out of the ice, sending the Climbers flying. As they got up from the ground, he slammed one hoof into each of them, slamming them into the wall as well, and pinning them there, since the wall was two feet from where he was now standing.

Suddenly, as the Ice Climbers fell unconscious, a rock hit Red in the head. Obviously, it hadn't hurt him, but it had annoyed him, also obviously. He dropped them from their positions on the wall, turning to see Banjo bouncing another rock in his paw.

Red rushed forward, throwing a punch. Banjo pulled off his backpack, dodging the punch and capturing Red's fist in said backpack at the same time. He then razed his claw across RBJ's cheek, and actually left a mark where he scratched. Red turned his head back toward Banjo, slowly, then removed his book from Banjo's backpack, grunting angrily. He slammed his right hoof across Banjo's cheek, and although Banjo merely turned the upper half of his body sideways instead of being sent sideways, everything still blacked out.

* * *

When Banjo awoke, he found he was being dragged through a hallway. Trying to reach up to rub his head, he found that his arms were handcuffed together, and so were his legs. He looked left and right to see the others were already awake, in the same situation he was. He looked up and behind him to see Red Brief J's back, the, as Red turned and tossed them into a door, a large room. 

Banjo stood up (with a little difficulty,) a looked around. Computers were everywhere, and the room was occupied by nothing but skeleton pirates. Stairs in the center of the room led up to a small throne, slightly suspended above the ground by a small pole, obviously so it could rotate. At the front of the room was a large window, and in it, the coastline of Hyrule was visible. It was obvious that they'd made it to the airship.

"So, you're here," said the cruel, feminine voice of Risky Boots, who swiveled around to meet our heroes face to face. She took the last sip of red wine in her glass before standing up, standing at her full height, now obviously about 6 feet tall. "I must admit, you lasted longer against Red Brief J than I would have expected. But, the fact still remains that you lost. Now, in just a few minutes, this ship will be going on a kamikaze mission, and the only passengers on board will be you four."

"Wouldn't it be faster to just kill us outright?" asked Nana, as the other three empathetically shook their heads.

"Yes, it would," said Risky, as she started to pace around the room. "But as I said before, it would actually be faster to send you on this mission than it would be to wait for you to die of trauma. And, if I or any of my crew are to get close enough to you in order to kill, Red will have to step back, in order for us to do the job properly. That will give you all a chance to break your shackles and/or escape."

The others contemplated this as Risky stopped at the window, staring out at the Hylian coastline. "You see, we knew the Heroic would try and stop us, whether we put up a shield or not, they would eventually detect us, and try to stop us. So, we purposefully waited until the last second to put up our shields, thereby leading them to think this would be an easy job, and that we were barely holding out, so that they would send some of their worst troops in to do the job."

The heroes were shocked at that. –_We're…some of their worst troops?-_

"So imagine our surprise," continued Risky, turning her head toward them, as well as interrupting their thoughts, "when they sent you." Team Double-Double Dip was startled again. "I mean, you definitely aren't their best troops, but you also definitely aren't the worst. Especially with Joe on the team!" she turned back out toward the coastline. "But, now Joe is dead, and-"

"Dead!" shouted Nana.

"He's not dead!" shouted Popo. "He's the greatest! You wait and see, you ugly skeleton sea-dog!"

Risky seemed oddly calm after Nana's interruption and Popo's insults. "Think about it," she said. "My troops are located all over this island. It is a small island, and there are not many places to hide. In fact, you four found probably the only place last night. Not that I know where that place is…but the fact is, if Joe was still alive, he'd be wherever you were. Since he obviously wasn't there, he must either be air molecules, vaporized in the explosion, or in the strong sea currents, the bottom of. In fact, sea currents are why we waited so long to attack…"

Suddenly, there was a loud shaking. If our heroes were outside right now, they would have seen a large pillar come from the bottom of the aircraft into the ground, in the blink of a cat's eye. The three wheels formerly supporting the aircraft slowly rose into the machine, as the ground beneath the aircraft started to crack…then the ground beneath the airstrip…then the base…then the mountain…then the jungle…then the entire island.

The aircraft slowly rose into the air, revealing the pillar was connected, under the ground, to a piece of metal, which quickly grew into a weapons deck…an observation deck with a lookout point…a bow…a stern…a battleship. The entire island broke and sank into the sea as the dead-black battleship rose from beneath the waves.

Though they could not see the full extent of it, the others were in awe at the fact that what they thought was an aircraft…well, y'know.

"Hmph. The sea currents are strong, and Hylian spellcasters know how to make them stronger." Risky said when the transformation was complete. "That's why I needed surprise on my side. By the time they're ready, they'll all be dead. You see, although the Allied Nations and Black Hole are staying out of this war for the time being, for enough money, you can still get weapons. And besides this battleship, and the "aircraft," which is really a propulsion system, I have 12 Black Bombs ready in the bottom part of this battleship ready to be fired. Of course, even though we have enough oil now, calculating charge, providing wind and currents and trajectory, and several other things make shooting them into Death Mountain quite a chore."

"Shooting them into…that's crazy!" shouted Banjo.

"I think not," said Risky. "We will have activated our escape systems by then, leaving you behind to get caught in the eruption that should blow Hyrule all the way to Eagleland. The weapons on the battleship are all fake, but they look authentic. They need to in order for Hyrule to not see our plan coming until the afterlife. Plus, you four will be strapped to Black Bombs when we fire them, just in case. I wonder which will kill you first, the G-forces, the lava, or the eruption?"

Our heroes were very scared. This Risky Boots was a _villain._ "One last note before I send you to the brig for the next hour: without Joe, you four are bugs to me. Take them away, Red!"

Red began dragging them again, this time in the opposite direction.

* * *

The dungeon was completely pitch black. Although their shackles had been taken off, little hope was for escape, since Red Brief J. was guarding the door, which had no hinges, so Banjo couldn't break it down, and there was still little moving, as the room was cramped. 

Occasionally, a small sniffle was heard from the Ice Climbers, who were very upset about the whole situation, just as the adults were, but also like the adults, were trying not to cry. Kazooie broke the silence. "I can't believe that Joe is…is really gone…"

Everyone expected an objection from Popo. Instead, he quietly said, "First…dad goes up…into the mountains…doesn't come back…and then…mom gets sick…and finally, I find someone I can look up to again…and now he…" Popo broke down completely, sobbing and sniffling.

"I…I'm gonna call the rest of the Heroic…" Banjo said, pulling out his wlakie-talkie.

"NO!" said Nana through her tears. "That's for real emergencies!"

"This is one!" said Banjo, beginning to cry too.

"Not one we can't handle!" said Nana, rubbing her eyes dry…and actually smiling. "The only reason we couldn't beat Red before is because we didn't work together!" Everyone thought about this, scenes from the fight flashing through their minds. "But if we come with a plan and work together, like we did entering the base, we can beat him down easily!" She turned to her brother. "Joe may be gone, but maybe not! And even if he is, if he were still here, and one of us had died, he'd be sad, yes, but he'd wait until after the battle was over to start mourning! That way he's always at his best when he's fighting!"

Popo dried his eyes as well. "Yeah, I…I guess you're right," he mumbled, smiling as well.

Banjo and Kazooie smiled as well, ready to go out and fight. "Alright, Red Brief J is not that smart, so maybe, combined with his own muscles, we can use that against him…here's what we're gonna do…"

About 15 minutes later, Red yawned, getting bored. Well, he wouldn't be bored for long…an explosion ripped the door off its frame, slamming into Red and knocking him against the wall.

"Who knew I could use grenade eggs and Wonderwing at the same time?" Kazooie chuckled as they ran off to Red Brief's left. He got up, angrily, just as the Ice Climbers rounded the corner. Banjo and Kazooie stayed behind. Kazooie went "Nya, nya, nya nya nya!" then blew him a raspberry, shortly before going into Talon Trot mode down the hallway corner.

Red steamed so hard it came out of his nostrils before he super-dashed down the hall, stopped, turned, and went down the other hall as BK went to the right, down another hallway. Suddenly, a white rope tightened just in front of Red, and he tripped over it, the fact he was Super-dashing sending him a good 40 feet, spinning in midair.

**_CRASH!_**

The Ice Climbers, one side of the rope in one of each's hand, came from their hiding place, and BK, Banjo now walking, came back from the hallway. Red Brief J was now more than halfway through the side of the ship, only his shoulders and head sticking out. He was squirming, trying to get free. Banjo calmly walked up to him and said: "Y'know, if you get free, the boat will sink." That immediately stopped his squirming, but did not stop the angry grunts and the steam from his nostrils.

Our heroes emerged from a small hole, covered by a metal lid, onto the main deck. Immediately Risky Boots came over the intercom. "Sorry, but you're late. The hatch is now opening, the Black Bombs coming out, the escape system ready to launch and there is little to nothing you can do to stop us."

With these words, the front of the ship opened, and the hum of rocket engines came from within. Slowly, the Black Bombs emerged, floating in the water, and Team Double-Double Dip could do nothing but watch. As the hum got louder, everyone on the ship was absolutely still, and it was clear they were ready to launch, finally, with the last burst of energy…

…they stopped, the hum slowing, the rocket's energy draining, until finally nothing but the sea was moving, and even then, rather slowly. Suddenly, the current seemed to "reactivate" or something, and pushed the Black Bombs back into the ship. 12 large explosions later, the ship was a wreck, now only kept afloat by…a miracle would be my guess.

"Wha…what happened?" asked Popo.

"Well kid, that's what happens when you Slow down time."

Our heroes turned to find none other than our missing hero, Viewtiful Joe.

"VJ!" Nana and Popo yelled, running toward him and wrapping him up in a big hug. "You made it!" said Popo. "And the reason no one found you was…"

"Was because I wasn't on the island, I was on the boat!" chuckled Joe as he finished Popo's sentence for him. VJ then looked up into Banjo and Kazooie's stunned faces. "Don't you remember?" he said, pretending to be surprised that they were shocked. "I said that there weren't gonna be any casualties on this mission, remember?"

Banjo chuckled, and Kazooie smiled.

Meanwhile, back in the "aircraft"…

"Um…ma'am?" said the Chief Scientist. "We're going down…"

"NO, DUH!" shouted Risky as she picked him up by his collar with her hook. Then she threw him away as she gave her order: "Launch the escape system, now!

The back of the boat opened, revealing a more generic pirate ship inside. It slowly floated out into the water…then began to lift into the air!

"Well?" said Risky, angrily. "How come the magitech thrusters aren't thrusting!"

"At the risk of being thrown again, I'd like to mention that someone has jammed our thrusters completely. We are barely lifting off the surface, and the thrusters will completely die at around 4000 feet." Said the Chief Scientist.

"Of course…" said Risky, rubbing her left temple.

Back at the battleship…

"Uh, oh, the bad guys are escaping. Got to run!" yelled Joe as he launched into Mach Speed, jumping onto the back of the pirate ship. Banjo and Kazooie and Nana and Popo all tried to follow, but another small explosion blocked them! Then, something flaming fell in front of them. Banjo picked up the Ice Climbers in his arms as he ran around, looking for a lifeboat, a way off, a safe haven, anything…

Meanwhile, Risky saw Joe climbing onto her ship's poop deck. She let off a sigh. "If you want something done right, do it yourself…" she muttered, walking out onto the deck as VJ started beating up some of her crew.

Joe saw Risky Boots walk out the captain's cabin out of the corner of his eye. "Ah!" he said, turning toward her completely and punching out the last pirate at the same time. "The boss lady shows herself! You know, you look pretty good for someone who has lost most of her body!"

"Thank you. I try," she said, then, to Joe's astonishment, taking off her hook…

…and revealing she still had both her skeletal hands.

"Okay…" said Joe. "What's the point?"

Risky bent the hook down, turning it into a handle of sorts, then turning the bottom of the hook toward Joe. As she drew her sword using her right hand, 9 small gun barrels appeared in the hook, turning it into a gun.

"Oh…now I see…" said Joe. Then, he did a pose. His V-emblem on his forehead suddenly got much longer, turning the points into two swords. The swords then separated from each other until they were horizontal, and then the red circle split in half, wooden handles sticking out. Joe caught these swords, then did a bunch of fancy poses, ending with the sword in his right hand in front of his forehead, and his left-hand sword in front of the imaginary line between his chest and stomach.

Risky responded to this by shooting her hook gun. Joe responded to this by slowing time, dodging 5 shots, hitting four back, and returning time to normal. A second passed before Risky Boots chuckled and said, "You're a bad shot, Joe…"

Joe leapt into the air, coming down with his swords in an X-like formation. Risky responded by sticking her sword in the center of the x, vertically. "And a worse swordfighter…" she said, knocking him away, and his swords landing in front of him, his back turned to her, him lying down. He reached for the swords…

…Only to have nine rounds knock them off the ship. He looked toward Risky, he mockingly posed as she said: "Thankfully, I am neither!" Angrily, Joe got up, soon getting nine rounds to the chest, which didn't kill him, but did knock him off the ship.

Back on the battleship, things were getting bad. The ship had broken in half, was three quarters underwater, and what wasn't underwater was on fire. "Oh man…" said Banjo, "We came all this way…"

"Look!" shouted Nana, pointing to the falling Joe.

"Oh no!" shouted Popo.

Kazooie looked on as well…she started thinking…dozens of images, thoughts raced through her mind. _–Can't let them down…- -You're a weakling!- -A bird who can't fly!- -Joe's in danger!- -You can!- -You can't!-_ Suddenly, one of those thoughts seemed to have Nana's voice.

_-You have to try…-_

Kazooie opened her eyes, now full of determination. "Banjo, run toward Joe! Don't stop no matter what!"

"Okay…worth a shot…" mumbled Banjo, running out of options. As he ran Kazooie slowly spread her wings…they jumped…gravity pulled down, and then…

…They were flying!

Kazooie opened her eyes again, this time to winds in her face, clear blue skies, friends cheering her, all that good stuff.

"I new you could do it if you tried!" shouted Nana.

"Yeah, and you were right," said Kazooie. "Maybe I should start believing in fairy tales…" shortly after this sentence, she caught Joe.

"Thanks for the lift!" he said, not seeming to have been worried at all.

"Yeah, don't expect me to do it often, you weigh a ton!" said you-know-who.

"Kazooie…" said Banjo, good-naturedly.

"I know, I'm kidding!" she responded, flying up to the ship.

Meanwhile, Risky Boots thought Joe dead. "Oh, well…maybe next time the one who…" Then she was whacked by Kazooie's wing upside the head.

"I'll see what I can do to steer the ship! Hope for a miracle!" Joe said, running off.

"Wait!" said Banjo. "What about her?"

Joe stopped. "If I believed you couldn't handle her, I would have asked you to steer."

He ran off again. Team Double-Double Dip turned to face Risky, who had just gotten up. "Oh, so you bugs will face me now?" She raised the barrel of her hook. "I shall enjoy squashing you!" she finished, firing off nine rounds at BK. Nana and Popo froze them in a large icicle Banjo crouched down, allowing Kazooie to chop all but the bottom part of it off, then flip it up. Banjo jumped pulled back his legs, and kicked the icicle into Risky. She landed about 5 feet away from her first position, icicle on top of her, before she sliced it in half, flipping backward. The Ice Climbers, Nana standing on top of Popo, stood in front of her, hammers raised. Risky turned gun back to hook, on left hand, in order to fight both. Finally, after a short stalemate, she knocked the Ice Climbers away, turned hook into gun, raised it in order to fire.

Kazooie knocked it into the air, where it fired off harmlessly, before Banjo caught it, pointing it at Risky, who just chopped the barrel off with her sword. Banjo and Kazooie looked at it, dazed, before Risky tried to sever them in half with a vertical slice. Banjo used the hook part left to block the blow, knocking Risky's sword away, and kicked her into the mast, all with one move. "Ice Climbers! Sail!" he said.

Getting what he meant, the Ice Climbers pulled out the ropes that held the sail, which then fell onto Risky. As she squirmed to get free, they used their own ropes and those that were holding up the sail to tie her to the mast. Once they were done, only her head and feet were showing out of the sail. They then calmly walked up to her.

"Guess what, Risky Boots?" said Nana as she and Popo raised their hammers.

"You were just beaten by a bunch of bugs!" finished Popo, bringing hammers down and knocking Risky unconscious.

At the steering wheel, Joe was trying to gain control of the descending ship, when he noticed something in the distance…it was a giant Eggman head, emitting a wave that kept it afloat. Circling its bottom were pillars holding green energy, all connected to a giant ray gun at the very bottom. A plan formed in Joe's devious little mind…

* * *

"…and I will destroy Central City!" laughed Eggman, finishing his rant. Little robots ran around with Eggman on top of the ray gun. Sitting, tied up, in the particle accelerator, obviously in danger, were Sonic, Marth, ad Megaman. 

"I am entirely sure, for I know not of your modern technology, but…I believe we are in trouble," said Marth.

"Don't worry," said Megaman. "I have a small knife in my pinky, I've cut the bottom rope, so we can break free at any time. Sonic, you'll beat Eggman to the switch, break it, and the we stall so he'll forget to check, and the energy he's storing will overload and his machine will explode!"

Suddenly, a giant pirate ship crashed the room, sending an explosive shockwave that sent everyone to the ground on both ships. The three heroes looked up, confused. Sonic, as usual, broke the silence.

"Or, that works too…"

* * *

"Very well done," said Mario, later. "If you're wondering, Risky Boots and Red Brief J, along with several genric enemies, are now both in our custody. Megaman teleported them with you guys when he sent you home. And, the two crafts exploded fully at about 2000 feet above ground. No one was hurt.So, great job, guys! And, whatever you're teaching them, Joe...keep it up!" 

"Actually," said Joe, "I was off somewhere else for most of the mission. These guys did most of the work on their own." he said, indicating Team Double-Double Dip, who blushed.

"Well, I'll make sure to put that in the records." said Mario.

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

"Sorry, gotta go," said Mario, turning on the intercom. "Link? Zelda? Marth and Roy? Come on up!"

* * *

Wow...whoo boy! Looks like that messy business is over! Now, preview for next chapter, but first: I've decided to stop dividing it into episodes. I figure, let it do it itself. Also, please, tell me, what's your favorite chapter and/or quote and why? That way I get more review...I mean, I'm just curious. ahem Preview! 

_**Team Mideavil**_ (could use proper spelling, please...) **_a.k.a. Link, Zelda, Marth and Roy, face off against some of Wily's best...or worst, depending on how you look at it. Who will win this clash of time periods? Find out, in the next chapter..._**

**_'Age-Old Battle for All Time!'_**


	10. Age Old Battle for all Time

HEY NEW CHAPTER MAN I HAPPY! Um...I'm sorry...by the way, you'll notice that sometimes, I describe how characters look, and sometimes I won't. That's because I try and avoid drawling, and the well known ones are...well known. So I like to describe the lesser known ones only.

To Ri2: They didn't take the communicator because they didn't know they had them. They didn't take the hammers because they were overconfident they wouldn't escape. (At least, that's my excuse...>.>;) And...everyone wishes they had thought to muzzle Kazooie. Everyone except Kazooie herself, that is...BTW, thanks for the correct spelling.

* * *

"I still don't quite get it," said Link, tentatively. "How could this small machine (He pronounced it mak-een) make drinks out of fruit?" 

Jeff chuckled. Patient as he was, and loving of technology as he was, he was explaining the blender to Link for the 3rd time, each time in more and more simplicity. "Well, first off, it's pronounced 'machine'. Second, there is a small blade at the bottom of the container. When the machine is plugged in, and I press one of these buttons, the blade will spin, its speed depending on the button I press. Just have fruits in before you press the button, and…"

"Wonderful fruity drinks of pleasure!" said Link, finally understanding. "I get it now! Thank you for being patient, Jeff."

"Eh, it's second nature to me. Besides, I love technology, so explaining it over and over is quite pleasurable to me." With these words, the two heroes turned, wonderful fruity drinks of pleasure in hand.

"I know I'm new to this world, and all…but I'd have to say that you are a genius with machines, Jeff!" said Link, praising.

"True that might be," responded Jeff as Link took a drink of juice, "But explaining the inner workings of a blender does not take many I.Q. points." He abruptly stopped. "You know, Link…"

"Yes?" said Link, turning around.

"Uh…y'know, my father was one of the leading electrical and mechanical scientists in the construction of our headquarters."

"Really?"

"Yep," responded Jeff, pushing up his glasses, looking proud. "Second only to Professor E. Gadd, he was. Together, they came up with the system of wires that is capable of transporting magic as well as endure the intense heat in the polymerization chambers, that and the electrical frequency stabilizers we currently use." He shot a glance over to Link, who looked absolutely confused.

Before Jeff could try and bring his 21st century talk down to Middle Age understanding, a loud noise pervaded throughout the chamber: _BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

"Link? Zelda? Marth and Roy? Come on down!"

"Guess that's me. Hold this until I get back!" Link said, handing his drink to Jeff and running off.

"Hmm," murmured Jeff, a little sadly, as Link stepped through the door into the hallway that would eventually lead to Mario's office. "If only that was what I really wanted to tell you, Link…if only…"

* * *

"Oomph!" That was the sound of Link and Joe bumping into each other as Joe left Mario's office and Link tried to enter. "Oh, sorry, Joe." 

"Eh, it's alright," responded Joe, getting up and brushing himself off. "I've been hit harder. But, now Silvia and I have a date to get to. Oh, speaking of dates…" VJ said as he looked at Zelda who was coming in from his left, Link's right, the east. After she went in the office, nodding to signify she saw them, Joe finished. "There goes yours! Planning a little something for tonight, huh? Huh?"

MEANWHILE, INSIDE THE OFFICE…

"Good evening, those who henceforth shall be known as Team Medieval," said Mario to the newly codenamed team. "But where's Link?"

"GYAAAAH!" shouted Joe, flying headfirst into Mario's office, to the right of Mario himself. Then, sliding down the wall to the floor, he mumbled into the paint: "I'd guess he's in the doorway…"

"**DO NOT CONFINE OUR RELATIONSHIP TO SUCH…"** After saying this, Link noticed the other four staring at him.

Marth broke the silence. "What on Nintendo did Joe do to deserve such a trouncing?" he said, indicating the movie magic maker, who was getting up slowly, dusty, dazed, and slightly bruised.

"HEY!" shouted Joe, readjusting his baseball cap. "How do you know he didn't do this to me because he's jealous, or he's eager to pick a fight, or-"

"Because he is Link," said Marth. Then, smirking, he said: "And you are Joe."

As Joe steamed, Roy reiterated Marth's question, in his own "language": "So what'd he do, call your tunic a dress?"

"No," said Link, calmly (though his face told another story), "He dared to suggest that my deep, trusting relationship with Zelda was no more than mere dating!" Then, his voice began to get angrier. "And the way he said it made it sound like I was only "dating" her in order to-"

Mario interrupted, rubbing his temples: "I would suggest that you never finish that sentence, Link." Before anyone else could comment, he swiveled in his chair, the "M" in a circle flipping around to show a TV screen. "Earlier this morning, we got an alarm from the World Information Center, or the WIC for short." Suddenly, with no visible signal from Mario, a soldier in green goggles, a gas mask, and a dark green uniform appeared onscreen, flames dancing behind him. Behind the goggles was a man desperate; shouting into a comm.-link as the screen fizzled and static occasionally flickered. "Help us, please help!" he yelled, as two more generically dressed soldiers behind him shot handheld lasers at an unseen foe before suddenly sinking into the earth. He looked back just in time to see them completely disappear, before turning back to the screen, more fearful than before, if such was possible. "There's been a security breach in the World Information Banks of Computers! We-"

He was suddenly interrupted by a large explosion, behind and to the right of him. He flinched, giving a small scream, then looked back to see a tall figure, about 6' 4". The figure was engulfed in flames, but they seemed to darken the figure instead of light him up, shadowing his identity. The figure raised his right arm toward the soldier, and a pillar of flame shot out and engulfed the poor man, who gave a final, horrified scream as static flickered, and the transmission ended.

"I think that speaks for itself," said Mario, swiveling to see two very shocked figures, one calm one, one now absent one (Joe) and one who was eating a burrito. I'll leave it up to you who was what. "Time is of the essence. If evil forces obtain that knowledge, then all technology will be at their mercy. Luckily, we have a direct teleportation pad to the WIC's main room. Although this is your first mission, because only one of you is not a general, (Zelda looked slightly angry at this) I see no need to send another one with you. Well, Team Medieval…move out!"

* * *

"Heh, heh, heh…" said the tall figure, walking past shelves of books and CDs, toward a large central monitor, with two large containers, filled with blue liquid, both attached to it. "I don't know about you, partner, but I found that way too easy! Seriously, lasers and smoke bombs? It's like they _want_ us to steal their stuff!" 

"Maybe so, but we sure don't want you to!"

The two thieves turned, to find four figures standing in the doorway. The red, blue, and green ones all had swords, and the green one also had a shield that looked highly reflective. The girl, who was in pink and white, had magical energy of some type coursing around her fingers, according to the tall thief's electronic scanners, located where his irises would be. The same scanners also clarified that the red one's sword was actually more of a lance.

"I don't believe that we've been properly introduced," said the red one cockily. "I'm Roy, the Flamberge."

"I am known as Marth, the Windstorm," said the one behind and to the right of Roy.

"I'm Zelda, the princess of Hyrule and Sage of Wisdom," said the girl, to the front and right of Roy and Marth.

"And I," said the final figure, to the right of the other three, "Am Link, the Hero of Time." His eyes narrowed before he continued. "And all four of us think that you two should surrender."

"Heh, heh, heh…" the tall thief chuckled, a little evilly. Now clearly shown, he was wearing a red jumpsuit with a small, silver, raised disk in the center of his chest. On the disk was an icon that looked like a shooting fireball, curving toward the right and toward the front. He had silver boots, and no hands, silver turrets in their place. His head and neck were covered by (either that or simply were made of) a metal mask that formed in the shape of a 1-foot tall pipe, broadening and curving around the shoulders. Flames danced at the top of the pipe. "Well, I am known as Fireman. This is my associate, Sandman." As he finished, he indicated his partner.

His partner said some foreign language soon after being indicated. "Zurrrk. Zug zork zugga!" Sandman looked like, well, a mound of sand. Except, that mound was shaped somewhat like a head, with two red, glowing eyes on it, black outline around the eyes, and a rather large, irregular mouth. Two mounds of sand shaped like hands were slightly in front of the dust-and-dirt creature. A circular pit of sand was continually around the creature, about a foot more of a width the creature's maximum. It seemed to move with him as he "stepped" forward, so one could assume that he did not create sand, merely turned the ground to it. The sand that was on his body was continually moving downwards due to gravity, but more was always there to take its place.

Fireman spoke again: "And we think that us two should _not_ surrender. Master Wily may have built us to serve him, but even so, it never hurts to promise a little reward. 'Little' being one million zenny for each of us! We can only get that reward if we get a certain one of the chips located in that monitor, so I would suggest that you middle age rejects run home and avoid the techno-beating due to you!"

"Not a chance, tin can!" shouted Roy, as Team Medieval leapt forward.

"Then let's get it on!" shouted Fireman, crossing his arms in an X-shape. Two small pillars of flame, about three feet long, shot out of his "hands", turning into flame swords. He and Sandman rushed toward the Team…

Marth brought his sword down in a vertical ark, creating a gust of wind that sent most of Sandman flying, before Sandman formed back, brought his right hand back, then shot it forward, it turning into a sand-snake. Marth dodged to the left, the giant snake barely missing enjoying a meal. Marth then stuck his sword into the snake, who screeched, then eroded into dust. Zelda jumped in front of Marth, then shot a blast of light magic at Sandman, who had just finished reforming his left hand. He caused a thin, 5-foot high panel of earth to come up and protect him from the blast. As soon as it ended, he brought it back down and turned his hands into a sandstorm, rushing forward. When the sandstorm was over, Marth and Zelda's heads were the only things sticking out. Sandman smirked, and started causing the sand mound to sink toward him…

Meanwhile, Link and Fireman were fighting with their swords. Fireman seemed to be winning, but Link seemed to know something Fireman didn't. Suddenly, Fireman sent Link flying about 5 feet with the broad side of his sword. –_Strange…-_ he thought, as Link slowly got up. _From what my databases say, Link is a much stronger fighter than this. So why…-_

Suddenly, a sword stabbed him straight through his silver disk. He looked down, slightly shocked, then realized that it wasn't a sword, but a lance. And it was on fire. He chuckled. "Roy," he said, as the person behind him looked shocked he hadn't done so much damage, "You just made a tactical error. I'm _Fire_man, remember? What you just did…" Suddenly, a blast of flame came from the back of the hole in his chest, knocking Roy to the left of the monitor. "…was give me a big burst of energy."

"Hi-yah!" shouted Link suddenly, rushing forward. Fireman barely had time to block as Link's sword came dangerously close to cutting his right shoulder. Fire retaliated with a sword strike to Link's right hip, or at least tried to, as Link's mirror shield knocked it away. Although the strike came from such an angle that the deflected flame sword did not hurt Fireman, Link was able to kick him a good five feet away while he was distracted.

"Get us out of here, Marth!" Zelda yelled, as the two sank deeper toward the throaty laugh of Sandman.

"I cannot!" shouted Marth. "My sword is underneath the sand! I can't move it, ad therefore can do nothing with the wind."

There was a short silence, before Zelda broke it. "I guess _I'll_ have to use the wind, then!" With that, green wind spiraled around Marth and Zelda, stirring up the sand. "Faeroe's Wind!" shouted Zelda as her eyes glowed green. Suddenly, Marth and Zelda disappeared. Unseen to Sandman, the same green wind spiraled around behind him, and the two reappeared. Sand had fast reflexes however, and turned and grabbed Zelda and Marth, one in each gigantic hand. He made sure his thumb covered Zelda's mouth so she could not cast that strange spell again.

As Fireman got up, Link stood there, staring. Suddenly, he shouted a battle cry, then spun his sword 'round, a blade of energy left where his trail was, which almost seemed to get bigger and hit flame boy, who went skidding back. Fire looked down to see that Link had cut a wide gash in his stomach. Wires and parts were exposed, and a soft blue glow surrounded it.

_-That's odd,-_ Link thought. _–He is…a machine? Is that what he meant when he said Wily 'created' him?- _ Fireman suddenly moved a turret to his stomach and shot a small blast of flame on it. When the flames disappeared, so had the wound. This time, Link was confused enough to speak out loud. "What kind of magic…?"

"Not magic," said Fireman, raising his turrets toward Link "Technology." With that, he shot two blasts of flame, large enough that they became one, at Link.

"Naryu's love," said Link, calmly, just before the blast hit. A large, blue, magical, protective force field formed around him, keeping the flame from hitting.

"Nice trick," said Fireman, "But my databanks say you can't do that trick twice, so…goodbye!" he shouted, raising only one turret this time, as if unsure he was correct. As the blast shot out, Link got out his bow and arrow, shooting the arrow, which quickly turned into an Ice Arrow. The Arrow shot through the flames, nullifying them, but some of the ice melting off as well. When it reached the turret, sticking inside and short-circuiting the turret, all the ice had melted off. Fire looked at it for a second, confused, before he had to create another flame sword to block Link.

Link steadily was forcing Fireman back as they fought, Fire finally showing some fear in his electronic eyes. Suddenly, though, a block of stone bricks dropped down from the ceiling, seemingly crushing Link, though no one was certain of that since so much dust was knocked up. "Link!" shouted Marth, the now-conscious Roy, and mumbled Zelda.

"Thanks for the save, Sandman!" shouted Fireman. Suddenly, however, the stone rose up. When it was fully risen, it was clear Link was using his Golden Gauntlet-induced super strength. He half-turned, pulled out his longshot, and shot it into Sandman's forehead. It seemed like time moved in slow motion as he "fell" backwards, letting go of Marth and Zelda.

Link reeled in the longshot, or, more accurately, the lngshot reeled in Link. As the point stayed in dirt & dust's forehead, Link went flying toward him, the block still held up by one hand, but moving slightly downward. Finally, Link jumped Sandman, smashing the block on top of him. Sandman's hands twitched before sinking into the ground, slowly.

Fireman's voice broke the silence: "Good thing this baby's fireproof." All eyes turned to him, to see a slot in the monitor open and a small microchip in his hand, which was formed out of fire and took the place of his sword. Suddenly, Roy jumped up and gave a few quick horizontal slashes at just the slightest angle. Before Roy could continue non-flaming-lancing, the stone block crashed into him from the side. Sandman gave a small smile to Fireman, who rushed over next to him. "Let's get out of here!" he shouted, just before there was a large, but not very powerful explosion. When it faded away, Fireman and Sandman were gone, the blast having teleported them.

There was a very negative aura going around the room, as the heroes grasped the full burden the situation imposed on them…

They were the first team to fail a mission.

* * *

Meleancholy ending, huh? Um...by the way, I noticed that there were two reviewers, and neither of them told me their favorite quotes and/or narrations. It may not be necessarry, but I am curious...HEY! Next chapter preview! 

_**With the weight of their failure on their backs, our heroes head home, as evil plots yet another theft at another place. Team Medeival decides to study up on robots and computers, shortly before getting the second chance they've been hoping for. But with an enhanced Wily force, can our heroes stop the evil forces charging forward? Or will they fail, once again, to defeat the futuristic technology? Find out, in the next chapter...**_

_**'Mechanics of a New World'. **_


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